Mason's Big Day(s)!

Mason turned 8 this year on one of the busiest days on our calendar.  For some reason everyone thought the 20th would be a good day to schedule school performances and t-ball games, not to mention Drew's weekly piano lesson.  The little girls and I attended Mason's Under the Sea school performance dress rehearsal during the school day then rushed to the store to get his balloons and party fixings.  Drew had her lesson and we rushed to Papa Murphy's for Mason's annual sausage and pepperoni (yuck!) birthday pizza, choked it down, and went to Darcy's t-ball game.  Paul got home from work and picked Mason up from the park to get him to his school performance that evening.  We all met up at YoPlace, the self-serve yogurt place the kids love, to have birthday "cake."  I'm so glad he chose that route so I didn't have fit decorating a cake in there.  After yogurt we rushed home to open gifts and get to bed an hour past bedtime on a school night.  What a crazy day but Mason is pretty crazy so it was fitting I guess!  He got a Razor Spark scooter, an electric connect set, and a tennis racket and balls which we will use during Tiff's Tennis Camp this summer.  Must be nice to be 8!  This last year Mason has grown a ton.  He is only a half inch shorter than Drew now.  He is an excellent student at school and an avid reader at home.  I love my crazy little (big) guy and couldn't have asked for a better son.  And I would never ask for another son so I'll just appreciate the one special son I have :)  Love you Mase!

 Because Mason turned 8 he was eligible to be baptized.  There were two other kids in the ward turning 8 in May so we had a baptism for all three.  We were able to streamline the process and we only took 50 minutes to have three kids baptized and confirmed along with the rest of the program!  Nice!  Uncles Roland and Scott were the baptism witnesses to Paul baptizing Mason, and they also joined in the confirmation circle with Brother Terry Howell and Bishop Naillon while Paul confirmed Mason a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Two down, two to go for our family!  It was a nice program and afterwards we went home to stuff our family with tacos and ice cream!  It was a great day and we had lots of family members show up.  Let's see if I remember them all:  Grandma Erickson, Sequoia, Diego, Aunt Carmen, Kendall, Aunt Alloa, Uncle Scott, Uncle Roland, Aunt Star, Maple, Koa, Asa, Grandma and Grandpa Nedry, Aunt Stacy, Max, Aunt Candace, Madison, Kennedy, Aunt Sammy, Uncle Shane, Ruqayyah, Silas, and the 6 of us.  29?  That's a lot of love and support for one special guy.  Thanks to all who attended Mason's big day!  We bought him his very own scriptures with his name engraved on them a few weeks ago so he is good to go!  This afternoon he starts cub scouts and he is thrilled.  I never payed attention to my little brother because he is 8 years younger than me so this boy stuff is all new to me.  Luckily he has a dad who has been there and done that to help him through :)  Congratulations Mason, we love you and are proud of the great kid you have become!

Baseball/T-Ball Season

Here are my spring ballers!  Mason was on the baseball farm team again and Darcy played her first year of t-ball.  Mason knew exactly what to expect so no big deal.  Darcy had no idea what to expect and was tentative about playing but she always had a smile on her face and said she had lots of fun in the end.  I think she and Bree will play t-ball together next year, and we're thinking about switching them to the softball league.  As for Mason?  Not quite sure yet.  I was hoping he would learn to dislike baseball enough to not want to play again next year because he will move up to minors which means traveling to games.  I was not, however, hoping he would have a miserable season.  For some reason we only had a week or two of practices before games and then all practices stopped.  That meant the only time the kids had to work on any skills was in a game situation, and they only got to hit twice a game if they were lucky.  There was very little skill improvement all the way around.  Last year he did really well for his age.  This year he was pretty much stagnant and I'm pretty sure miserable most of the time.  He only got a couple hits all season and the games are so darn slow at times they just stand in the field and never touch a ball all game.  Though there was one game where he had a hit and he was responsible for getting 3 outs all by himself for the team!  He actually caught a pop-fly which was a great moment :) and he fielded the ball for outs on first and third bases as he was playing those positions.  Great game!  At that point I thought I had lost the battle and we would be watching him play in minors next year, but that was one gem in a pile of coal.  I'm pretty sure(?) he won't be playing next year.  Darcy had her ups and downs but she had some good friends on the team and had a good time.  She want's to play next year for sure.  I'm glad the season is over, we were gone in the evenings 3 or 4 nights a week and then Saturday's were shot since they both played hours apart.  Its fun to watch but after awhile I just want my life back.  Now, on to summer fun!

I love how their feet don't touch the ground!

Happy Easter/Birthday Drew!

Drew is going to be annoyed with my ordering in this post because she was constantly telling us her birthday didn't fall on Easter this year, Easter fell on her birthday because her birthday is constant.  Easter isn't.  Yah, yah, yah, but we had a few Easter activities before the big day so I will address Easter first.  Sorry Drew.  We always head to Corvallis for an Easter party with my family on the Saturday before Easter so we decorated eggs on Friday night.  We are much more interested in decorating than eating the eggs but I think next year we will get another dozen or so on top of the 5 dozen we did this year.  Its just so much fun to get dye all over the countertops!  We end up with some "cool" color mixes.  We achieved a poop colored one this year!  

On Saturday we skipped baseball/t-ball games to hang out with the cousins.  We always have an egg toss and Paul and Mason always cheat.  This year they used a hard boiled egg.  Last year Paul had extra eggs in his pocket to replace broken ones.  He cheats on the egg drop off the garage roof too.   Let's win at all cost!  Looks like I'm rubbing off on him.  

 This is the mad dash to find the plastic eggs filled with goodies.  This is only the kids 10 and under.  The older ones really have to search because the uncles like to hide the eggs for them in impossible places.  The kids love it.

 Bree found her name egg!  They get a special treat in these.  Rule is you can only grab a name egg if its your own.  Last year Mason got his wires crossed and only looked for his name egg.  He had an empty basket till I hurriedly explained to him he could pick up the unmarked ones.  Crazy guy, what did he think there were a million laying on the ground for?  Obviously Bree knew what she was doing.  After fun with the cousins and Grandma and Grandpa we visited with Paul's mom and cousins for a little bit and then high-tailed it home so we could get to bed before the Easter Bunny showed up.  Whew, we made it!

Easter morning the kids woke up to filled baskets and 5 dozen eggs to find.  They did a pretty good job, we only had one missing.  Thankfully I found it the next day near a plant before it could rot.  The morning and church were devoted to Easter, the rest of the day we spent celebrating Drew's 10th birthday!

10 years ago my life was blessed with my sweet Drewsy.  What a blessing this girl is to me and our family.  She is the ultimate big sister, always willing to help out and always willing to give things up to the younger kids, even when I tell her she doesn't have to.  She is kind, considerate, smart, athletic, funny, an avid reader, and loves to have conversations with mom and dad.  I love watching her grow and I know she has great things in store for her.  Once she sets her mind on something she figures out a way to achieve it, no matter what is standing in her way. "Can't" is not in her vocabulary.  What a great trait to have.  This year we had strawberries and angel food cake and she got a basketball, legos, and some dreaded clothes (I always hated clothes as a gift.  BORING!)  I hope she had a good birthday, it was unique anyway.  I never would have thought Easter would be so late in April.  Love you Drew!

What now?!

Cool picture huh!  That is really my brain after my MRI on April 5th.  About a week before that, I started to feel numbness in my left arm and leg.  In the past that had been a symptom of my thyroid being out of whack or my B12 being low.  So I went to my doctor thinking it was my B12 because maybe my shots at home weren't quite as effective as the shots by the nurse?  He did a complete blood screen and everything looked normal.  So why was I numb?  He said it could be a symptom of multiple sclerosis(!) but he would rule that out and just call it carpal tunnel on my arm but he wasn't sure how the leg numbness fit in.  Gee thanks!  Not only did you give me a ridiculous diagnosis, you also scared the heck out of me by mentioning MS.  I have a wonderful, spirited, hilarious first cousin once removed who has been battling the disease for years and is now confined to a wheel chair.  To see that in your future is hard to take.  He said the next step would be an MRI if I started feeling worse.  Well, a few days later I felt a lot worse.  Both of my arms were now numb and felt pretty much dead.  It was a conscious act of will to lift them off my lap.  My left leg was numb except for the foot which tingled day and night.  Something was wrong.  Saturday evening Paul took me to the hospital because I figured I needed an MRI and I couldn't wait days to have one scheduled.  I knew the ER would do one right then so off we went, after a most wonderful family (the Edwards) ALL came over to watch the kids.  They had quite the time I heard later, and didn't mind so much mom and dad were gone.  Thanks Edwards!  Anyway, they got me into a room at the ER and the doctor there said it was rare but I had the symptoms of MS.  So of course I had decided I had MS and I was trying to figure out how to live the rest of my life with this new reality.  They stuck me in the MRI tube, which really is an awful experience.  If you aren't claustrophobic before hand, I guarantee you will be once you are in there.  I had to keep my eyes closed and spend 5 million dollars to keep myself sane.  Ugh.  Then the MRI guy wanted to shoot me with some stuff to make my brain appear colored or something so it showed things better but they never put an IV line in back in the ER.  So he whips out the equipment and proceeds to poke me in each of my inner arms but he can't get the darn thing in.  Then he calls a nurse who takes her own sweet time to get there and she proceeds to poke me on the top of my right forearm(!) and can't get the thing in either.  Good thing the guy pulled me out of the MRI at this point and I was still laying down or they would have had a problem on their hands.  Finally my ER nurse shows up about the same time as the head nurse who can stick anyone successfully I heard, and they are both pushing around on my arms looking for veins.  At that point I was laughing at just how absurd it all was.  I was also extremely relieved because the MRI guy asked why I was there and I told him I thought it was to rule out MS or a tumor and he said even though he wasn't fully trained to read them he didn't see any signs of anything being wrong at that point.  The relief was amazing.  I guess I didn't realize just how much the possibility of a debilitating life-long disease was weighing me down.  They finally got the IV line in between my fingers on my left hand!  OWWWWW!  I will never allow that again I tell you.  Freaks me out to think about it still.  So back in the MRI I went and spent another 5 million in my dreams and finally was able to head back to the ER where the doc said she didn't see anything wrong, I was really very healthy, and to follow up with a neurologist.  OK.  On Monday I was able to see a neurologist who did all kinds of little nerve and sensation tests and he proclaimed me really quite healthy.  Seriously people?  In truth, I have two conditions that left untreated are life threatening.  I don't really call that quite healthy.   So in the end I was never given a diagnosis from a high paid medical doctor.  What I am self-diagnosing is that this was a flare-up from all my autoimmune diseases.  Kind of like how I get hives every once in a while, this is probably just my body's way of reminding me that I really am not quite healthy and I'm getting old and should expect a recurrence whenever my body decides to go wacky again. Thankfully at this point the numbness has pretty much gone, but for a week my forearms and hands had horrible pain.  I couldn't use my hands to grip things or I would have shooting pain that felt like what I imagined getting struck by lightning would feel like.  Today I am feeling pretty good but even typing this is making my forearms and wrists annoyed.  Hopefully in a few more days all symptoms will be gone and I will once again be "quite healthy."  I have to say though, I am so thankful that I live when my problems can be treated and managed.  How many people in the past died from "natural causes" that could have been what I have?  Now there is a name for every illness, people rarely die of "natural causes".  All our suffering is defined.  Does it make it any better with a name?  I don't know.  But I do know that before modern medicine came around people used to suffer.  I wouldn't want to deal with the symptoms of my conditions every day of what would have been a much shortened life.  For bodies to be such a miraculous working machine, they sure break down an awful lot.  There are few I know that don't have some sort of chronic condition.  Such is life I guess.

New Normal

I just shot myself.  In the stomach.  Twice, on purpose.  With syringes full of B12.  Welcome to getting older and breaking down a bit I guess.  This will be my new normal.  Once a month for the rest of my life I get to shoot myself full of vitamin B12 because my stomach decided to quit absorbing it from the foods I eat.  Just another autoimmune disease to add to my list of hypothyroidism and hives. Thanks a lot.  Last year at this time I was feeling numbness on my left side so I thought it was my thyroid acting up.  Nope, B12 deficiency.  I was low but not in the danger zone yet so my endocrinologist told me to see my regular doctor about it.  With all the trip planning going on I totally forgot about it and didn't remember again till September when I was going through paperwork to find my lab request for my thyroid test I have every six months.  Oops.  So this time the test came back with numbers far below the danger zone for B12.  If I didn't get help I would start having nerve damage, plus other stuff, plus death.  Blah, blah, blah.  So I started getting monthly injections at the clinic here in town but the annoyance factor of scheduling it every month and taking Bree in with me and the inconvenience on my time was enough for me to request being taught how to do it at home.  I REALLY hate needles so this was a huge step for me.  For some reason (Oregon law) you can't give yourself a shot intramuscularly but you can do subcutaneous shots on yourself.   Now for some other reason you have to split the B12 into two shots if its done subcutaneously.  Lucky me!  I practiced at the doctor's last month and the first shot was perfect.  The second I didn't poke fast enough so I kind of ended up pushing it in and the whole thought process and  pain behind it made me almost pass out!  I'm such a wuss.  I figured I would give it a try and if I couldn't do it on my own I could always head back to the doctor every month.  But this morning I was able to give myself the shots just fine!  I'm so proud of myself!  Walmart hooked me up with some needles that were tiny so I didn't feel a thing.  I kind of have to disassociate myself with what I am really doing to myself and then I'm fine!  I'm also glad I can do it this way since we have a mail order pharmacy that sends 90 day supplies so I actually have a couple vials in case of an emergency and I can't get to a doctor on time.  Its great for my thyroid meds too.  I am able to keep extra in our 72 hour kit.  I always worry about those who need regular doses of meds who might not be able to get to them in an emergency.  Not me!  I can shoot myself no problem!  I know there are many others out there who have it much rougher than I do, my sister for example with rheumatoid arthritis who shoots herself in the stomach once a week, but I am pretty proud of myself for being able to overcome my deathly fear of needles to take care of this minor inconvenience.  And, I have a great excuse now to keep a permanent roll of fat on my tummy so I have an injection site.

Curling 101

I've been bitten by the curling bug!  Every time the Olympics come around I always get into the curling.  I even snuck into a curling country club in Canada when we were on vacation a few years ago just to see it in person.  This Olympics (Sochi, Russia) everyday for 15 days at 2pm I would watch the curling, no matter who was competing.  I loved it and Drew and Mason got into it too.  I have been thinking about trying it for years but never actually made any effort to do so.  One evening I was watching the Olympics and they were doing a human interest story on a female snowboarder.  She was pretty eccentric but one thing she said really stuck with me.  She said she wasn't content to just let life happen to her.  I thought that was great.  How many of us are walking around this world just letting life happen to us?  Uh, me?  So for the next few days I was trying to figure out how to start a curling club in Portland.  Then I got the bright idea to Google it and see if there was any place near us to curl.  VIOLA!  There is a curling club in Beaverton!  I was soooo excited.  And since interest is high during the Olympics, they had learning to curl classes and open houses set up all through February for all the armchair curlers out there ready to give it a try.  So I contacted my friend Ericka, whom I had seen posting things on Facebook about curling, and we decided to attend an open house.  Drew begged to go so she came along with us.  Mason tried his hardest to beg also but I tried to explain to him that this wasn't a mom activity, but a Tiffiny activity.  I was actually doing something for me and if I let my young kids come it would turn into me helping them try to learn instead of me learning.  Selfish?  Eh, it is what it is.  So Drew got to come but Mason didn't.  Sorry buddy.  It was actually a good decision though because I don't think he would have been able to curl.  It is deceptively difficult.  The balance is the hardest part.  You have to stay upright while sliding on one leg on the ice, all the while concentrating on throwing a 42 lb "rock" way down a sheet of ice.  It took quite a few tries but towards the end we got it.  Drew was able to throw a nice guard and I actually had the winning rock in the pick up game at the end of our lesson!  It was so much fun!  It was a workout too.  You walk in there and its freezing and you leave sweating.  Sweeping is no joke.  It takes some upper body strength and you are moving pretty fast to stay ahead of the rock sliding down the ice.  We had an awesome time and I would LOVE to keep at it.  Unfortunately it is quite the spendy sport, but then so is basketball and baseball right?  There is a novice league that runs through April that I am interested in but with the kids signed up for baseball we will have to see how schedules match up.  I guess I signed up to be bottom on the list when I had 4 kids!

 Here Drew is learning to throw the rock.  She was really good at the balance part, she just didn't quite have the strength to get it all the way down the ice.  She did great though and of course would love to keep it up.  Maybe its time to move to Beaverton so she can practice and get good enough for the Olympics in 12 years!

 This is me trying my darndest to stay up!  It was kind of like learning to ride a bike.  Once your body gets the feel of the correct balance you are good to go.

 Drew and Ericka waiting to sweep!

 Drew and I getting ready to sweep for this great guy who was there on his own, learning to curl.  Way to not just let life happen to you!

Here we are in action!  Sweeping is tough and my triceps were sore the next day!

Basketball 2013-14

 Basketball season started in November and my intent was to coach only Drew's 3/4 grade girls team.  Well, Mason's coach for his 1/2 grade boys team didn't have an assistant and since I knew I would be at every one of his practices and games, I volunteered to be the assistant coach for his team.  I had fun working with the younger boys.  They are full of energy but really willing to listen to what we had to teach them.  Well, all but my own son that is.  He would listen fine to Coach Crystal but when it came to Coach Mom he pretty much closed his ears.  I guess he has enough of me trying to correct his actions at home, he wasn't about to take it on the basketball court too.  That's OK though, at least now I know I can never volunteer to be his head coach.  Duly noted.  Mason improved immensely from last season.  He is a darn good defender anyway but his dribbling and shooting skills really improved.  He actually got the team award for most improved shooting.  He played hard and I'm always proud of the effort he puts out.  I think the funnest part of the game for him is just getting to hang out and play with other boys, something he never gets to do at home, poor guy.  I'm hoping as he gets older and has more sporting options available to him he will stick with basketball.  Not only for his sake but for mine.  I enjoy sitting in a nice, dry, climate controlled gym as opposed to outside in the northwest weather for the spring and fall sports :)

 I was prepared to coach Drew's team since I had coached the same age level last year.  I love the girls at this age and development.  They pretty much know how to play basketball, its just refining their skills.  We saw so much progress in our team over the season.  I had a really great group of girls and enjoyed them all.  They were all very willing to listen to my directions and they will probably have dreams of "USE THE BACKBOARD!" for the rest of their lives.  They were also a bit squirrely at times but that's what makes it fun?  Drew's goal entering the season was to make 20 baskets, which was huge since she only made maybe 5 last year.  She ended up making 17 and was the highest scorer for our team.  Drew is awesome to have on a team.  She is so eager to soak up information and achieve things to the utmost of her ability that she had no problem listening to instructions, even if they were coming from mom.  I have a great time coaching her and I hope she feels the same.  Next year she will be in the 5/6 grade girls level and I'm not sure how I feel about coaching that age group.  I will have to think about that.  Also, Darcy will be able to play and I think it might be best if I sign up to coach her team.  We'll see though.  For the foreseeable future I believe Drew is sticking with basketball and that makes me a very happy mom, if it makes for a very happy Drew!  Now we are waiting to hear from Darcy's t-ball coach and Mason's baseball coach so we can get the spring sports started.  Darcy is a little wary of playing but I know once she gets into the "swing" of things she will be fine!