The Family Life is the Good Life: July 7, 2017

Summer is rolling along and I have not posted on here for a while. We are kinda being lazy and getting rest and getting a few chores done along the way. The pool water is warming up a bit since it's pretty hot outside, 100 F. Cory had his sleep study yesterday and the night before. He goes back in a couple of weeks for the doctor to tell him the results but what he observed himself was pretty much what he thought would be the case. They fitted him for a cpap and said that if he had a certain number of incidents within the first two hours of sleep that they would put it on him and send him home in the morning but they never put it on him so we assume he does not have apnea. They woke him up at 6:30am and then had him take a 20 min nap at 8, 10, 12, 2 and 4. If you can't sleep you just try for the 20 mins. He said he easily fell asleep every time and even dreamed. I hope that easily diagnoses him with narcolepsy or hypersomnia so that insurance will approve his medicine. It's pretty lame that insurance is being a pain and that the pharmacy tells us if we just buy it ourselves it's 700 dollars but I looked it up and our insurance only pays them a contracted price of $70. I have the insurance, why can't I just pay the $70? Of course I don't really want to pay that much every month either. Once insurance approves it, we only pay 7 dollars a month. The boys have their sleep studies later this month. We had all of their genetic tests done and they all have Myotonic Dystrophy type 1. Cory's is mild and the boys' is moderate or classic. We will have Lidia tested after her mission. I really hope she doesn't have it but I'm worried she does. Others I have chatted with online from the support group have had daughters and sons with it and the girls' symptoms seem to be less but they pass it on worse. We'll see. In other medical news, I am having a hysterectomy next week, July 12. I pray all goes well and I will heal quickly. I will not miss this uterus and the pain it has caused me the last few years.

Aiden graduated and made all A's and B's this year. I hope his hard work and success follow him into next year. I made candy leis for him for graduation. We went to Cracker Barrel for lunch before and after graduation his friend Taylor Riding spent the night with him playing games and watching movies in the basement. He's a nice kid. He got his mission call and is going to the Iowa Des Moines mission. Nauvoo is in that mission. Pretty cool. Aiden has applied to a couple of jobs but no luck. I need to practice interview skills with him more. He has gone and cleaned a few schools here and there but not too much. Oh well. We need to get him ready for college in the fall anyway. I need to practice taking the bus with him and make sure he knows where all of his classes are and get his schedule and all in his phone with alerts and get him to the bookstore to see what he will need etc.

We had a nice Father's Day. I bought Cory a ball hitch for his truck and a water hose. lol Just a couple of things we needed. We went up to Maddox in Brigham City for a nice dinner and afterwards walked through the poppy field at Box Elder campground in Mantua. On Sunday they gave all of the fathers a 100 grand candy bar. We love Cory and are very thankful he is ours.

Tristan turned 15 on June 23 and had a party with a few friends here at home. They ate donuts and pizza and chips and played video games and swam in the pool. It was a good day. He loves all of his presents and was so happy to have friends over. Ethan, Dylan, Wyatt, Caleb and Segen came. I need to take him to the DLD to get a permit study book. His friend Ethan turned 14 a few days after so now Tristan is not the only teacher and a new family moved into our ward who has a 15 yr old son so we have three teachers. Yay! Jaron seems like a really nice kid.

We went down to the Manti pageant and spent the night down there. It was fun but they should redo the narration to the pageant. It's cheesy and not really reverent enough for the material. It sounds more like a chuckwagon dinner show from the 50's or something. lol We had a good time though. It's fun to be part of the excitement of such a nice gathering and it's a sweet little old town. They had food tents set up to feed everyone and it raised money for groups there to have camps and things. We enjoyed exploring more the next day on our way home when it was quiet the next day. We drove past Snow College. I have heard about it but never been. It's small which is nice but there really isn't much to do there. I think I'd rather send my kids to Weber or UVU. I hope Shannon has a good experience there in the fall though.

Micah's birthday was July 4. We went over to help him with the sprinklers in his yard and hang out and that night we went to dinner with them and Lisa's family and after to Micah's house for cake and ice cream and fireworks. It was a good day. Oliver is at a funny stage. He likes to do things to make you laugh. He is starting to talk a bit. Yesterday we stopped by real quick and he was saying "all done". We are watching him tomorrow morning for Lisa and Micah to go to cub scout day camp.

I got some paint to paint the mud room and hopefully make it look better where Cory had to patch the sheet rock where the washer leaked from upstairs down into the mudroom. We got a new commercial washer. It is supposed to be good for 25 years. Cory also replaced the water faucet on the back of the house and the pipe came out and he had to cut a hole in the basement ceiling to get to it to fix it. He just covered it with an access panel so we can get to it when needed and he put in a shut off valve inside so you can turn off the faucet in the winter. I told him he will leave the front faucet alone. lol He did that while me and Aiden were in NYC. We had a good trip. We saw lots of cool stuff, esp architecture and we got in to the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. At the end he walks through the audience and we were luckily at the end and back so I gave him a high five and Aiden gave him a fist bump and then Jimmy stopped to tell him that he loved his shirt and that Breath of the Wild was his favorite game. That made Aiden's day and made all of the waiting in standby line worth it. While exploring NYC like good ole tourists we actually met a lot of people from AL and a few from UT too which I thought was funny and several were also doing a graduation trip like us. We were on Good Morning America real quick when Ginger Zee came outside to talk to us about the weather and you can see us on Fallon when they show the audience when John Cena came in. I also had street performers pull me out of the crowd and they had me stand still with my head down and the guy ran from behind me and did a flip over me and landed in front of me. lol We saw School of Rock and Bandstand. I loved Bandstand. Aiden said he loved School of Rock. lol We stayed at the Hotel Edison which was fine but I had to wear ear phones with something playing to sleep so I wouldn't hear the street noise. It was a nice location though. We enjoyed the boat ride the last day. We got off at the 9 11 memorial. I didn't expect it but I just cried. It's very well done. There are holes in the ground where the towers used to be and the names of those who died are engraved all around the outer rim of the square and little water beads stream down to the bottom like they represent those people's lives being taken that day. I could cry just thinking of it. You can definitely feel the spirit of what happened there. Aiden loved the Nintendo store by 30 Rock. That's where we bought souvenirs to bring home. He also wanted to go to Madam Tussauds wax museum so we did that and it was fun. We got a wax mold of our hands. It's a very hot and cold process. lol We went up to the top of the Empire State Building and walked around the observation deck outside. It's about the same height as the Eiffel tower but didn't feel as tall to me because the other buildings are kinda tall but in France they are not.

We finally got railing and put it up.

Aiden and Trenton at Ashton's graduation party.

First day of summer. Segen and Ethan came over to play and Segen and Tristan helped put on the new trampoline mat.

The boys helped set up the pool and Tristan was the first to jump in but it was freezing cold so he hurried out. lol

hole in the trampoline lol

new bistro set

Seminary graduation with Trenton and Austin

Avery jumped off the trampoline and onto a plastic chair and went right thru it.

my peonies

6th grade graduation

new swing

The new washer

Avery's end of year history play. he was a Mesopotamian.

I took some senior pictures for Aiden's announcements

My mother's day gift :)

waiting for our new washing machine

water damage from old washer

Aiden had fun at prom.

Fun little cousins in Idaho

Lidia is enjoying her mission. She was recently transferred from the Braddock YSA
ward to the Centreville 1st ward. She is enjoying being in a family ward again.

We sent Lidia a new dress.

Aiden's yearbook picture

arrived at 5:15 am to get in standby line

lame tourist photos they take and try to sell you for crazy amounts, we didn't buy it and the lady
saw Aiden take a pic of it and told him to delete it but she didn't make him empty his trash. It's not
a good pic anyway but we are keeping it for spite. lol The glass shelf is right across Aiden's eyes.