Busy, Busy, Busy!

School's out!  Its time to relax!  Except relaxing isn't what the Ericksons do best I guess.  Not that I would mind chilling out for a day or two but when there are four active kids and a mom and dad who want them to experience life, there are few dull moments anymore.  School got out on the 13th and I'm happy to say we got through the year with little drama or turmoil and all 3 kids passed!  Whew!  We'll have 3 full-timers and Bree starts preschool in the fall.  What will mom do to fill her time?  The afternoon/evening of the 13th I had to attend Young Women Standards Night which was really horrible timing for my family.  I knew the last day would be an emotional day for the kids and sure enough, I left the house at 4 to 3 kids crying and also myself teary-eyed at the thought of having to leave them like that.  Secretly (now publicly) I was thankful for the threat of rain that turned an over-nighter into an afternoon/eveninger activity.  It was a good time but I felt bad abandoning my kids.  The next morning Paul got up early to drop Mason off for his ride to the cubmobile races in Scappoose and then on to help some people move, while the girls and I got ready for Drew's piano recital at 10.  Paul got home in time to shower and get us to the recital where Drew did a smashing job on her piece.  She likes the piano enough to sign up for her third year, but I think she is also ready for a break.  After the recital we raced to Scappoose in the hopes of watching a bit of Mason's race but it was over when we got there.  He said he had fun, we'll take his word for it.  Adding scouts to our schedule is busy but so far so good.  That afternoon we attended two graduation parties for wonderful young women who are going to go far in this world!  I think we all came home after that and crashed.  Sunday I taught at church and it was also Father's Day so we made Paul BBQ his steak dinner :)  We love Dad!

 Monday morning I signed the kids up for free swimming lessons.  All four were happy to get back in the pool but I think Drew and Mason are good enough that I won't pay for lessons for them anymore.  That afternoon the kids and I drove to Corvallis to stay with my parents and get Drew started at OSU basketball camp!  I went for 3 summers growing up, it was a longer camp then, and I had a blast so I was hoping Drew and Darcy would feel the same.  Drew was on a team of 5th grade girls and her coach was one of the current Beaver women players, Ali Gibson, and she liked her a lot.  She played ball for 3 hours an afternoon, 4 days in a row.  It was a lot of basketball and there were sore muscles but I believe she had a great time.  She wants to go again next summer but she'll be with the big girls then so it will be a different experience.  She did well and got the player of the day award for her team on Tuesday.  Go Drew!

 On Tuesday Darcy started her camp with her PeeWee camp with her cousin Ruqayyah.  We thought if the girls were there together they might do better and have more fun.  And boy did they ever!  We left Drew and Darcy at Aunt Sammy's after camp on Tuesday and Mason, Bree and I drove home that night to use Wednesday to get ready for our camping trip.  We also threw in blueberry picking on Wednesday so that was another full, full day for us.  Oh, Mason and Bree also got in another free swimming lesson that morning.  Aunt Sammy got the girls to camp Wednesday evening (Darcy and Ruqayyah's camp was 2 hours long for 3 days) and they stayed another night without us.  That was the first time for the girls sleeping away from both parents and they did great.  They were actually having so much fun with cousins that I don't think they really even missed us :(  I missed them though and was happy to see them Thursday!  We got the girls to camp that evening for their last session.  Drew got the "Best Teammate" award for her team and Darcy got the "Shooting Star" award for hers.  She also got an award the first night for "Best Energy."  Go Darcy!  I'm not sure I had her pegged as such an athlete but after T-Ball and basketball I can definitely say this girl has some skills!  And she's stinking cute too.  She plans on returning next year too, as will Bree who was desperate to get out there and play with Darcy.  At the end of camp all the girls got to take a basketball home!  They even gave Bree a ball and she chose the mini pink and black one of course.  One more year of balls and I will have enough for when I coach my own team!  Thanks OSU, we had a great time!

 

 

 Friday morning we went grocery shopping and headed out to our camping adventure at River Bend county park just east of Sweet Home.  We camped there last year to try out our new trailer and really liked it so we set up an Erickson family camping trip this year.  The timing wasn't the best, it would have been nice to go home and relax for a while, but we still had fun hanging out with even more cousins!  Unfortunately we were tent camping, which I never do well.  I didn't get any sleep for the two nights we were there and I came home and crashed Sunday night.  The days are fine but the nights are murder.  Especially when the air mattress loses its air in the night so Bree rolls over on top of me to sleep.  But that was actually OK since it was about 40 below zero in the nights and we were all FROZEN!  I missed the trailer :(  But we had fun hiking to a waterfall, playing kickball and frisbee with the whole family, visiting the fish hatchery and feeding the fish, wading in the Santiam river, and filling up on 89 cent slushies at the Circle K not far from our camp ground!  We had a great time with everyone and are looking forward to camping in July with my family at Mt Rainier, my favorite camping place on earth!  This week we don't get to slow down as we recover and get things back in order, and Drew has Activity Day Girl's Camp Wednesday-Friday.  The fun never ends around here and I guess we wouldn't want it any other way.  Welcome to summer!

P.S.  I am really missing being out on the road for 55 days.  I keep changing the background on the computer with pictures of where we were a year ago today.  The kids are sick of me reminding them every morning where we were and what we were doing a year ago (stuck in Texas, visiting alligators today :))

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!