Rain

We had a quick storm blow through this evening. It came it quick and hard. Dumped and left! There were several limbs and pine cones all over the yard and it pooled for a little bit but didn’t stay. 

 

Swallow failure

It’s been a rough couple of days. Yesterday I had a curbing job in the morning. I had to stop eating at 10 am but could have clear liquids the rest of the day until 8pm. I had sandwich just before 10 and then drank lots of water and propel and some chicken broth throughout the rest of the day. I did ok until late afternoon and into the evening. My head started hurting and I just really wanted to go to bed but I had coaching. It was the longest team night ever. I made it through though and then just went to bed at 8! It was hard to fall asleep though because my head hurt so much. This morning thankfully it wasn’t as bad but I was feeling pretty weak from fasting. We got up early to get to the clinic at 7 because that’s what my appointment reminder said, only to find that they don’t even open until 7:30. It was a bit frustrating. We just sat in the car for 30 minutes and then checked in and waited. They took us back and explained the process. I wasn’t going to be able to have anything until 10am and then just clear liquids again until noon. At which point I could have a small snack like soup or a sandwich. They hooked up the monitor and made sure the camera connected to it. Then I spent the next several minutes trying to swallow the largest thing I’ve ever seen called a pill. It was all to no avail. I swallowed multiple times but the pill was still in my mouth every time. I tried to practice last week but nothing could have prepared me for how huge this thing was. There was just no way my tongue was letting it go down. They said it was the size of a large vitamin pill but it was much bigger than any large pill I’ve ever seen. It was quite scary and very disappointing. I’ve had even small pills get stuck in my throat so it was terrifying trying to swallow and hope it went down without getting stuck. Now I have to wait for them to call and schedule me a time to be put under and they just put the pill in my stomach for me. I hate needles and being put to sleep so that is also not going to be a walk in the park event for me. I was really hoping not to have to go that route but it is what it is. I was glad that I could go home and eat sooner than later though. My body was really struggling with fasting this time. It’s been emotionally rough today but it’s getting better. Thankfully Tim was able to be with me all day so that was nice. 

 

Flowers

The verbena is always so much brighter in person than in pictures. 

 

cold sore

 I have been very anxious about having to swallow the pill capsule camera for my procedure this week. I have always struggled with swallowing even the smallest pill. I often gag, choke, sometimes throw up, and sometimes it gets caught in my throat when I try to swallow pills. So I always just use children's chewables for Tylenol or ibuprofen when needed and I take gummy vitamins. My alternative for this procedure is to swallow it or be put to sleep so they can insert it. I don't like either option but I'm going to do my best to swallow it first. So this last week I was blessed with a cold sore in my nose. I generally dissolve the pills in water and then drink it. But I told Heavenly Father thank you for the opportunity to practice swallowing pills. Since those are the only ones in my house that I would use because I don't have other pills that you swallow that I could practice with. I think we do have a few pain relievers but I'm not going to just take medicine when I don't need it. Anyway, instead of dissolving the acyclovir pills like I normally would I swallowed them. It took some time and some went down better than others but I was able to swallow about 8 of them before I decided I didn't need anymore meds. They are probably smaller than the one I have to swallow this week but at least I was able to practice some and feel like maybe I can do it. It still wont be easy but I hope it will go down without much trouble.

so pretty :)

More blooms coming. :)

My verbena has really taken off in this spot. It's grown a lot and has been blooming lots too. It isn't as vibrant in the pictures as it is in person. I haven't quite figured out how to capture it yet. But I'll keep trying. :)

 

Hosta and hibiscus

My hostas started blooming. I'm not sure what this area needs but the plants I have here don't seem to thrive as well as other places. I don't know if it's the pine trees or something else in the soil. They have been growing but very slowly. It's fun to see them blooming this year.

Also my new hibiscus finally opened up again! The blossom that was open when I bought it dropped the day I brought it home and then I don't know if it went into shock from me transplanting it into a bigger pot or what but several buds dropped and the rest weren't very close to opening. So I've been waiting patiently. I really like the orange/peachy color. I'm glad it didn't lose all of it's buds and that it's finally blooming again. I really like hibiscus flowers.

 

Back to school

It's crazy the summer has already come and gone. (Not that the weather indicates that.) Tyler is now a sophmore. It's hard to believe how much he has grown and changed in the last year. Can't wait to see what this year brings for all of us.

Bransen is a senior this year! How does the time fly so quickly?! This year he is taking college classes online for the second half of his day so he comes home at lunch time this semester. Since he is out early he has been able to drive to Raleigh on Mondays and join team practices up there to get more variety in training. He just started last week up there. He has so much fun he comes home with little skin left on his fingers. :)

 

Spartan Dekafit

Tim decided he wanted to try a spartan race but he doesn't like the price of the entry fee. He noticed on their website though that if you volunteer at an event/race then you get a code to sign up for free for one. He didn't really want to spend the whole day by himself so he asked if I wanted to join him. I wanted to be with him but I can't say I wanted to be at the Spartan. :) It was ok but it was a lot of standing and it was pretty cold because it was in an arena and they keep it cold for the athletes. They warned us to bring jackets just in case and I had planned on it and then completely forgot when we left the house this morning. It was interesting to learn about the event and how it works. We were there from 10 am until 6 pm. We did have a few short breaks and there was a lull around lunch time so we could go eat. They just start people in 15-30 minute waves so you get a burst of people at your station and then dead or just a couple at a time and then a burst again. They did team races too and some of them liked to have matching or themed outfits. We had Mario and Luigi come through. :) 

 

Fun with friends

We helped our friends move a piano today and then the boys stayed to play and hangout for a while. Their friend just got some sumo balls or whatever they are called that you can inflate and get inside. It was pretty funny to watch them. When Tyler and his friend were in them he sent is friend rolling head over heels a couple of times. I wish I'd caught it on video. It was pretty funny. They got stuck on their heads a time or two as well! They had a lot of fun with it but it was super hot a humid today so they all agreed it would be more enjoyable in a month or two when the temps cool down. :)

 

x-rays

 I went it for my bowel x-rays last Monday. I was thinking it was supposed to be a quick thing so Tim came with me since it was early and he didn't have meetings until 10 am. When they called me back initially and explained the process I realized it was not going to be as fast as I was thinking. I'm not sure how I got 20-30 minutes in my head but that's what I was expecting. I got in there and they took an initial x-ray to make sure I was clear enough to proceed. Then they had me drink 16 oz. of contrast liquid (not the most delicious stuff but not as bad as some things.) Then said they would call me back in 20-30 minutes to see how it was doing and keep checking every 20-30 minutes until they had the pictures they needed. I asked how long it was supposed to take and they said anywhere from 1-3 hours!! I was a bit nervous and thought I may have to just send Tim to work and have Bransen come get me. But we decided he could just wait and see and if he had to leave then he would leave me. They said if I walked the halls it would help speed things up. So we paced up and down the short hallway a lot. My body didn't love the stuff so it was pushing it through rather quickly and I was done in just over an hour which the technician said was really good! They said it could give me constipation so make sure to drink lots of water. I found that I had the opposite problem and was trying to stay close to the bathroom the rest of the day. Thankfully I finished in just enough time to take Tim to work and drop him off and then I went back later and picked him up. Thankfully they have bathrooms there too. :) It took a few days but the results came back that everything looked normal and I was cleared for my next procedure. The GI doctor's office called today and scheduled me to do my pill camera capsule thing on Thursday Sept. 3rd. One more thing done.

lights out, lights on.

I was watering this afternoon and enjoying the flowers.

Then a few hours later a storm blew in and turned the power off for a couple hours! I didn't even realize it was going to rain today. So fun. I was working on birthday cards when the power went out and it was pretty dark being overcast and stormy. Then I remembered we had some emergency light bulbs Grandi gave us a while back. I hooked it from my lamp and kept on working! :) It was pretty effective.

 

just for fun

Tim was playing with some wood again. I'm not sure if he had something in mind or was just playing on the lathe but he made what looks like an oversized short baseball bat. :) I told him it was such pretty wood he should have made a vase or something instead. He could fit one flower in it. Haha. I think he was thinking of using it as a mallet.

I love blue flowers. :)

I made these a week or so ago and just forgot to write about them. Not that they are super amazing but it was a nice little project that made a big difference in organization in the cupboard. We started getting the big bag of propel packets from sams. So I made little boxes to be able to sort them by flavor and keep them more compact and orderly in the cupboard. It's been working out very nicely.

 

Spreading joy

A friend was having a rough day and I know she loves brownies so I sent her a little joy! :) It was a little interesting rolling out the letters but they actually worked pretty well. And the important thing is they brought a smile to her face.

 

A day in the yard/home

I spent a lot of time in the yard and working with my plants today, inside and out. A couple weeks ago I was reading about my gaura plants and when to trim them because they looked so ugly with the long flower stems that weren't blooming. I didn't know if I should leave them though. Well I found out that they will bloom more if you cut them off. This made me super happy because they looked better trimmed and now they are blooming again and look so pretty! Their flowers are so delicate though that they never show up in pictures as well as in person. I love them when they are in full bloom.

My new verbena that I brought home this summer is really starting to grow and blooming tons. I put another one in the backyard to see which area it liked more and the front seems to be the winner. Although the one in the back is about to start blooming too. I love to watch them take off or to look back and see how much they truly did grow when I think they are still small but really they're two or three times as big!

I pulled out one of the sweet potato vines and put in my new calibrachoa in it's place. Hopefully it will grow and drape over the edge and be pretty without being as invasive. :)

My dichondra is doing so well this year. It makes me so happy to see it so full and pretty and closer to the vision I had when I first started growing it.

I have been wanting to repot my cyclamen for a long time. Then I decided to make the pot/window box to put them in. I also found a recipe for a waterproof sealer but it ended up being way thicker and stickier than I expected (I don't think I did it right). Anyway I had to wait several days and it was still a little sticky but I was too impatient to keep waiting so I mixed my soil and replanted them. I really like how it turned out. I hope they like their new home too. They just kept drying out so quickly in the other pots.

While we were shopping the other day we found these on clearance and decided to try them. Not sure how they will do. We've tried lucky bamboo before but weren't so lucky with them! Tim tried his in cinders and I tried mine in some soil this time. I also used an old piece of bamboo as my pot! I drilled some drain holes in the bottom and put in a wicking cord. Hopefully they will like their new homes and start to thrive. They were starting to yellow and wrinkle at the store so I'm not sure if we have much of a chance anyway but we decided to have fun trying.

This afternoon/evening time spent time making a sawdust disaster! :) He had fun doing it though. He was just playing with carving/shaping/grinding/using the lathe to work on some blocks of wood from the backyard. Not sure what he wants to make yet just getting them a little less blocky and then let them continue to dry before he finishes shaping them. It did create a lot of sawdust though.

It covered plants and sidewalk all over the yard! 

 

Temple

I don't have curbing for a couple of weeks while my friend is out of town. So Tuesday Tim and I came to the temple and then stopped at some stores and went to lunch on the way home. It was a nice day together. Today we went back to the temple with the boys and then went climbing after. I love being able to spend time in the temple with my family. It's such a special blessing and I'm so thankful for the boys coming with me. It was another great day. Tyler drove us to the temple, then to REI, to the gym and back home! It was a lot of traffic and construction and new areas. There were a few intense moments but he did great. It's still crazy to think this is the last one we have to teach to drive.