Happy Easter! My main thoughts this morning are of gratitude. I am very grateful that I have wonderful parents who taught me from birth the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have been great examples to me of striving to follow the Savior's example. I am grateful they taught me about Him and all that He has done for me.
Tomorrow my grandma is going to try again to get the pacemaker. They are going to check her blood in the morning and if her INR is low enough, they will be able to do the surgery in the afternoon. I hope it all works out this time.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Just Kidding!
First off, my grandma ended up NOT getting the pacemaker on Monday. They got her all prepped and then decided to check her blood. Her INR was at 7.6, which is incredibly high! That means her blood was super thin, too thin to do the procedure safely. The doctor said he would do it when it is at 2 or 2.5. We found out that she had been taking too much blood thinner medicine everyday. Good to find out before something bad happened! So, we are hoping to reschedule it in the next few weeks. My aunt and uncle are here helping to keep grandma company. They took her to Arches today.
Second, I got strep throat from one of my preschoolers. It come on suddenly Saturday night and I went to urgent care on Sunday morning. It was awful! I hadn't had it since I was little, so I didn't remember how painful it was. I got excused from work on Monday, so I relaxed and read Fablehaven all day and it was great. I went right back to work for an 11 hour day! It was really hard, but I made it though. I managed to get permission to make up for the hours I missed on Monday (since I don't have sick leave yet) and so yesterday was a 10 hour day and today and tomorrow will be 9.5 hour days. I feel better, mostly. It's just all really taking a toll on my body. I'm sore all over. It doesn't help that I feel like every aspect of my life right now is stressful. So, I'm taking the next couple evenings to relax again. I need it. Silencing the phone and going down stairs to lay on the bed and read and go to bed early. Sounds like the perfect prescription.
Second, I got strep throat from one of my preschoolers. It come on suddenly Saturday night and I went to urgent care on Sunday morning. It was awful! I hadn't had it since I was little, so I didn't remember how painful it was. I got excused from work on Monday, so I relaxed and read Fablehaven all day and it was great. I went right back to work for an 11 hour day! It was really hard, but I made it though. I managed to get permission to make up for the hours I missed on Monday (since I don't have sick leave yet) and so yesterday was a 10 hour day and today and tomorrow will be 9.5 hour days. I feel better, mostly. It's just all really taking a toll on my body. I'm sore all over. It doesn't help that I feel like every aspect of my life right now is stressful. So, I'm taking the next couple evenings to relax again. I need it. Silencing the phone and going down stairs to lay on the bed and read and go to bed early. Sounds like the perfect prescription.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Tomorrow is the Day
My grandma is going in tomorrow to have her pacemaker put in. She has to be at the hospital at 5 AM. Luckily my aunt Cindy is here to take her.
I was reading the pamphlet on the kind of pacemaker she probably will be getting and it says that if it senses a rapid heartbeat, it will send pulses of electricity to try to fix it. If that doesn't work, then it will send a shock to reset the heart. When the shock happens, the person usually goes unconscious so they don't feel it. But if they are awake, it feels like a kick in the chest. They could stay unconscious for a couple minute, but any longer than that means trouble. Also, if more than one shock is given, that means trouble, too. Considering both parts of her heart are bad, I wouldn't be surprised if she has to get shocked at some point. That's scary. The pamphlet said for her to have someone there when it happens to have them ready to call. Either way, I hope I am nearby so I can be there to help.
I was reading the pamphlet on the kind of pacemaker she probably will be getting and it says that if it senses a rapid heartbeat, it will send pulses of electricity to try to fix it. If that doesn't work, then it will send a shock to reset the heart. When the shock happens, the person usually goes unconscious so they don't feel it. But if they are awake, it feels like a kick in the chest. They could stay unconscious for a couple minute, but any longer than that means trouble. Also, if more than one shock is given, that means trouble, too. Considering both parts of her heart are bad, I wouldn't be surprised if she has to get shocked at some point. That's scary. The pamphlet said for her to have someone there when it happens to have them ready to call. Either way, I hope I am nearby so I can be there to help.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Update on Grandma
Yesterday she went to the doctor upon my request to get more information on the possibility of her getting a pacemaker as the doctor suggested to her on her last visit. The doctor informed her that her heart rate was at 30 when it should be at 60-70. He also said that the top of her heart and the bottom of her heart are both bad. She couldn't remember the specifics about that, so I don't know what the means exactly. Last week she had an angiogram and that was perfect, so I am assuming it has something to do with the muscle and not the arteries or veins.
The doctor convinced her that she has to have it done, so she decided to do it this coming week, probably on Tuesday. We hope to hear from the doctor soon to confirm that, but the doctor never called her back and they are closed until Monday, so she may not have it done until Wednesday or Thursday. The doctor recommended the best procedure would be to insert a CRT (Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy) Defibrillator. Basically, the device inserted sends electrical impulses when it senses a rapid heart beat in order to "reset" the heart so it beats normally. The wires of the device wrap around the the whole heart and not just half of it.
My aunt Cindy will be here as well as maybe my uncle Bob. I'm glad I'm living here now so I can help her, although it can be a bit overwhelming at times to think about it all.
In other news, I invited my new friends over for a game night and movie night last night and it was awesome! It felt good to not think about reality and just have fun. We played a very fun game called "Boxers and Briefs" (I assure you it has nothing to do with either one of those) and then we watched "Tangled." I LOVE that movie, especially with commentary made by the people watching it. And the other girls there confirmed my suspicions about the boys trying to impress me... it still makes me laugh, mostly because their methods are so different. It sure makes me feel welcome, though. :D
The doctor convinced her that she has to have it done, so she decided to do it this coming week, probably on Tuesday. We hope to hear from the doctor soon to confirm that, but the doctor never called her back and they are closed until Monday, so she may not have it done until Wednesday or Thursday. The doctor recommended the best procedure would be to insert a CRT (Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy) Defibrillator. Basically, the device inserted sends electrical impulses when it senses a rapid heart beat in order to "reset" the heart so it beats normally. The wires of the device wrap around the the whole heart and not just half of it.
My aunt Cindy will be here as well as maybe my uncle Bob. I'm glad I'm living here now so I can help her, although it can be a bit overwhelming at times to think about it all.
In other news, I invited my new friends over for a game night and movie night last night and it was awesome! It felt good to not think about reality and just have fun. We played a very fun game called "Boxers and Briefs" (I assure you it has nothing to do with either one of those) and then we watched "Tangled." I LOVE that movie, especially with commentary made by the people watching it. And the other girls there confirmed my suspicions about the boys trying to impress me... it still makes me laugh, mostly because their methods are so different. It sure makes me feel welcome, though. :D
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Family History, Friends, and CHOCOLATE!
The other day I was looking on new.familysearch.com randomly since I hadn't done it in a while and saw that a man recently added some information to a family that I've been researching for the past 5 years or so. I decided to email him and it has truly reignited the spirit of Elijah within me! It feels so good to get excited again about something I love so much! He found some things I never would have found or thought to look for and I count that as a tender mercy when it comes to family history research. It's also fun to have someone to collaborate with and get ideas or second opinions from on a family I'm becoming more and more interested and attached to.
These past few days I have felt great peace from the Lord about going to my new ward and everything that relates to my move. With the help of a great book (Fablehaven, thanks to Stephanie) and family history, and that peace, I haven't felt so lonely and isolated.
Because of all this, I was excited and confident as I went to ward institute tonight. Once again, it was a small group, but I liked it. One guy came in late and after the opening prayer moved to sit next to me because last Sunday I encouraged him to come. It was then that I looked around at the few people there and noticed that there were familiar faces and people that I wanted to be my friends. After institute, we all exchanged phone numbers (at my straightforward request) and talked about how we will transform this ward to be an amazing ward. This ward does need a lot of help. I won't go into details but I can just say that it is a complete opposite of the ward I just left.
While we ate we talked about the upcoming changes to our ward. In the past week it has been made official that this ward (which currently is in a family stake) will be combined with another ward and put into what will be called the YSA Aspen 7th stake (I think it is). There will be four wards in the building we go to and each ward will be fairly large. They said tonight that it is going to happen the last Sunday in May (or earlier). Many people in the ward are not very anxious or excited about this change, but everyone I talk to I try to assure them that it is the best thing that could ever happen to this ward that is nearly dying. Tonight the small group of us formed a "posse" to help liven up the ward and make it a better place to be. A few of us have experienced the college singles ward and stake so we talked about all the possibilities of how to really make it a great ward. We know it will be a rough start, but with us and good leaders, I think we can make it happen.
We thought to start with game nights and movie nights. Spread the word and make it not mandatory to come at a specific time but just to have fun. We thought that once the ward is combined (our ward will keep the leadership it has and the other wards will combine with us) we can try to sit with new people and help them feel welcomed. The thing we talked the most about was FHE groups. Right now the ward does ward FHE with few people coming, but we were talking about making it like the college wards in the new ward with multiple small FHE groups. It will make more callings and probably get more people to come.
I realized as I was talking to them that I was kind of volunteering myself to be the head of this "posse," but I'm okay with that if it means we can all have fun and a better experience in the singles ward. It was fun to talk to them all. It really made me feel like I have friends here now.
I HAVE FRIENDS!!!!!
Yeah, I AM that excited.
The other funny thing is having a couple boys trying to impress me... It's just really funny to me. Maybe because I don't care so much about impressing anyone in particular. I just want to make friends right now. These next few months will be very interesting as lots new people and more changes will be coming into my life. I'm excited!
Oh! And I can't forget to mention the chocolate! One of my new friends' dad makes chocolate as a hobby. I gave my friend Mikey a ride home and he asked if I liked chocolate and asked if wanted to have some of his dad's chocolate that he makes. I walked into the room and the first thing I said was that it smelled sooooo good and that it would be a girl's heaven. It was very yummy! In fact, I'm savoring every... last... bite! MMMmmmmm.....
These past few days I have felt great peace from the Lord about going to my new ward and everything that relates to my move. With the help of a great book (Fablehaven, thanks to Stephanie) and family history, and that peace, I haven't felt so lonely and isolated.
Because of all this, I was excited and confident as I went to ward institute tonight. Once again, it was a small group, but I liked it. One guy came in late and after the opening prayer moved to sit next to me because last Sunday I encouraged him to come. It was then that I looked around at the few people there and noticed that there were familiar faces and people that I wanted to be my friends. After institute, we all exchanged phone numbers (at my straightforward request) and talked about how we will transform this ward to be an amazing ward. This ward does need a lot of help. I won't go into details but I can just say that it is a complete opposite of the ward I just left.
While we ate we talked about the upcoming changes to our ward. In the past week it has been made official that this ward (which currently is in a family stake) will be combined with another ward and put into what will be called the YSA Aspen 7th stake (I think it is). There will be four wards in the building we go to and each ward will be fairly large. They said tonight that it is going to happen the last Sunday in May (or earlier). Many people in the ward are not very anxious or excited about this change, but everyone I talk to I try to assure them that it is the best thing that could ever happen to this ward that is nearly dying. Tonight the small group of us formed a "posse" to help liven up the ward and make it a better place to be. A few of us have experienced the college singles ward and stake so we talked about all the possibilities of how to really make it a great ward. We know it will be a rough start, but with us and good leaders, I think we can make it happen.
We thought to start with game nights and movie nights. Spread the word and make it not mandatory to come at a specific time but just to have fun. We thought that once the ward is combined (our ward will keep the leadership it has and the other wards will combine with us) we can try to sit with new people and help them feel welcomed. The thing we talked the most about was FHE groups. Right now the ward does ward FHE with few people coming, but we were talking about making it like the college wards in the new ward with multiple small FHE groups. It will make more callings and probably get more people to come.
I realized as I was talking to them that I was kind of volunteering myself to be the head of this "posse," but I'm okay with that if it means we can all have fun and a better experience in the singles ward. It was fun to talk to them all. It really made me feel like I have friends here now.
I HAVE FRIENDS!!!!!
Yeah, I AM that excited.
The other funny thing is having a couple boys trying to impress me... It's just really funny to me. Maybe because I don't care so much about impressing anyone in particular. I just want to make friends right now. These next few months will be very interesting as lots new people and more changes will be coming into my life. I'm excited!
Oh! And I can't forget to mention the chocolate! One of my new friends' dad makes chocolate as a hobby. I gave my friend Mikey a ride home and he asked if I liked chocolate and asked if wanted to have some of his dad's chocolate that he makes. I walked into the room and the first thing I said was that it smelled sooooo good and that it would be a girl's heaven. It was very yummy! In fact, I'm savoring every... last... bite! MMMmmmmm.....
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Trust
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
Better than I
From the soundtrack of Joseph King of Dreams (Dreamworks SKG)
I thought I did what’s right
I thought I had the answers
I thought I chose the surest road
But that road brought me here
So I put up a fight
And told You how to help me
Now just when I have given up
The truth is coming clear
Chorus:
You know better than I
You know the way
I’ve let go of the need to know why
For You know better than I
If this has been a test
I cannot see the reason
But maybe knowing I don’t know
Is part of getting through
I try to do what’s best
And faith has made it easy
To see the best thing I can do
Is put my trust in You
(Repeat Chorus)
I saw one cloud and thought it was the sky
I saw a bird and thought that I could follow
But it was You who taught that bird to fly
If I let You reach me, will You teach me
For You know better than I
You know the way
I’ve let go of the need to know why
I’ll take what answers You supply
For You know better than I
Better than I
From the soundtrack of Joseph King of Dreams (Dreamworks SKG)
I thought I did what’s right
I thought I had the answers
I thought I chose the surest road
But that road brought me here
So I put up a fight
And told You how to help me
Now just when I have given up
The truth is coming clear
Chorus:
You know better than I
You know the way
I’ve let go of the need to know why
For You know better than I
If this has been a test
I cannot see the reason
But maybe knowing I don’t know
Is part of getting through
I try to do what’s best
And faith has made it easy
To see the best thing I can do
Is put my trust in You
(Repeat Chorus)
I saw one cloud and thought it was the sky
I saw a bird and thought that I could follow
But it was You who taught that bird to fly
If I let You reach me, will You teach me
For You know better than I
You know the way
I’ve let go of the need to know why
I’ll take what answers You supply
For You know better than I
Thursday, April 7, 2011
First Impressions
First impressions last the longest, right? Well, with that in mind, I made myself look and feel my very best as I went to institute for the first time with my new ward. I was super excited (and nervous) to meet some of the people in my new ward. As I drove up to the church building that will now be where I got to church, I first found it odd that there weren't very many cars there... was there really institute tonight? I walked into the building and heard a piano playing so I went to that room (probably a Relief Society room or something) to find more adults there than YSAs. Okay... Am I missing something here? There ended up being only about 8 YSAs there from the ward, and two of those came late. Since I'm writing about first impressions, I think it's okay for me to say that the guys there really weren't all that... well, attractive. But, of course, that's judging by appearance... so forget I said that. The lesson was good, so I won't say much about that. After the lesson they had dinner. Some of the people left, but I stayed to begin meeting people and ask questions about the ward.
Apparently I wasn't missing anything. First of all, this ward is not a part of a singles' stake, it is in a family stake. The ward has about 150 people in it, but less than half actually come. They said they are working on that and publicity for activities. The oldest person in the ward (who I met tonight) is 28 and the youngest are the recent high school graduates. Most of the people in the ward are students who still live at home with their parents. The average age is "young." They said right now the ward is sparse, but as kids come back from school to live at home for the summer, the ward is really big. The girl I talked to made it sound like there weren't very many college graduates there because they all have moved away from home. The thing I can compare it to is the Chaffey Branch in my stake at home California. Everyone who is there has been there their whole lives and they know each other and those who go to school go away and come back every so often or not at all.
This is going to be hard, really hard. Coming from an large, incredible ward where there are few less actives and so many great people that come to most, if not all, activities is really hard. Not to mention how many friends I had in that ward- I knew most everyone! It's also really hard for me because one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to move is because I wanted to be in a ward with people who were my age and graduated and trying to support themselves like I am trying to do. It feels really weird to move into someone's "home" ward and be the only one who doesn't have a long back history with everyone else in the ward. I really will be fresh meat to the guys in this ward! I really hope that I can make some good friends and fit in. I need that. I also really hope that there is someone in this new ward who I can relate to and get the support I need as I am trying to be self-reliant and do what I need to do to care for my grandma. I just hope that there are a few really good guys and not just "left over" guys who've never lived away from home and who can be really creepy and weird. In some ways I kind of wish I hadn't gone to institute tonight because it might be hard for me to get that same excitement I had before institute when I get ready to go to my ward for the first time on Sunday. Like it or not, I'm here to stay and I can't go back. I already know this is where I'm supposed to be, so I have to press forward and jump in with both feet. I can do this and do it well! Good things will come from this, I just know it!
Apparently I wasn't missing anything. First of all, this ward is not a part of a singles' stake, it is in a family stake. The ward has about 150 people in it, but less than half actually come. They said they are working on that and publicity for activities. The oldest person in the ward (who I met tonight) is 28 and the youngest are the recent high school graduates. Most of the people in the ward are students who still live at home with their parents. The average age is "young." They said right now the ward is sparse, but as kids come back from school to live at home for the summer, the ward is really big. The girl I talked to made it sound like there weren't very many college graduates there because they all have moved away from home. The thing I can compare it to is the Chaffey Branch in my stake at home California. Everyone who is there has been there their whole lives and they know each other and those who go to school go away and come back every so often or not at all.
This is going to be hard, really hard. Coming from an large, incredible ward where there are few less actives and so many great people that come to most, if not all, activities is really hard. Not to mention how many friends I had in that ward- I knew most everyone! It's also really hard for me because one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to move is because I wanted to be in a ward with people who were my age and graduated and trying to support themselves like I am trying to do. It feels really weird to move into someone's "home" ward and be the only one who doesn't have a long back history with everyone else in the ward. I really will be fresh meat to the guys in this ward! I really hope that I can make some good friends and fit in. I need that. I also really hope that there is someone in this new ward who I can relate to and get the support I need as I am trying to be self-reliant and do what I need to do to care for my grandma. I just hope that there are a few really good guys and not just "left over" guys who've never lived away from home and who can be really creepy and weird. In some ways I kind of wish I hadn't gone to institute tonight because it might be hard for me to get that same excitement I had before institute when I get ready to go to my ward for the first time on Sunday. Like it or not, I'm here to stay and I can't go back. I already know this is where I'm supposed to be, so I have to press forward and jump in with both feet. I can do this and do it well! Good things will come from this, I just know it!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Here I go!
Today starts my next big adventure! I'm not sure what the future holds for me, but I know it's gonna be good. :D
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