Carbonite Pancakes and horse races

 In the last few years, May 4th has become Star Wars Day- "May the fourth be with you".

Derek has always been a Star Wars fan, and Dax appreciates it as well.  I have these silicon Star Wars molds that I use for various projects for the kids.  This year I did a simple Star Wars breakfast.  I just poured some pancake batter into them and baked them in the oven. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

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 Cinco de Mayo  (May 5th) is supposedly a Mexican Independence holiday, but from what I have learned America actually celebrates it more than Mexico and it only involves a certain area of Mexico, and it still isn't that big of a deal to the people in that area.  So America made it more of a holiday and we usually have Mexican food along with the rest of Arizona (I'm not sure if it is a big deal in other states).  Derek is taking a culinary class and he needed to make a well-balanced meal that was international food.  He chose fried rice, which is a favorite in this house.  So we had Fried Rice on Cinco de Mayo.  I don't think Derek cared what day it was he just needed to complete the assignment. Jocelyn came over and helped a bit.

The Kentucky Derby is always a fun event.  A few years ago I started having a party for a few kids, then I guess it has evolved and become a tradition.  When I didn't do it last year (COVID was an excuse) several people asked me about it. It wasn't even on my mind  this year but Curtis asked me about it.  It is a big undertaking to throw a nice party, I didn't know if I was up to the task.  I enlisted the greatest co-host, Megan Shumway. I knew this gal from church, but we really were not that good of friends, we are now.  She was excited to help and she was amazing she took this party to a new level.

Derek and Jocelyn

Tammy and Spencer Wilson

Gail and Kent Mortensen

Party Favor Derby Dung 

Liz Carroll, Tammy Wilson, Tiffany Andersen, Rhonda Michie, Marilyn Johnson

Sunday was Mother's Day.  My kids were great to me.  Before we went on the cruise, I told them if they would just dress up nice, and smile for family pictures that would be my Mother's Day gift and I would be very happy with it, and I was.They still gave me nice cards, and they went to Dairy Queen and bought me two boxes of cherry Dilly Bars, my favorite.  

My boys dress up and Trey almost smiling

Ralley in the Valley

 The Phoenix Suns, have made it to the playoffs for the second year in a row.  Fidelity Title, (the Title Company that Curtis gives most of his business to) offered Curtis two tickets in their Suite, Curtis and I went along with some other Realtors in the industry that Curtis also knew.  The Suns played the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Suns won.  It was a fun night.    

        

We got some new patio furniture this week. This should give us some nice shade in the backyard.  We had been talking about buying these large cantilever umbrellas for years.  I guess the upcoming party finally motivated us.  We need some shade back there if people are coming over.  I also planted some new plants, the backyard needed a refresh.  Jocelyn came over and helped me.  She is a very sweet girl, she likes to hang out and do crafts, baking, and yardwork.  

The kids approved of the new furniture, Now that there is shade outside Dax said he may even spend time out there.  His allergies are much better since he had surgery, now he can enjoy the outdoors.

Dax called this the "Pop up Pavillian"

And this monstrosity arrived.  I have been looking at one of these "Create room/dream Boxes" for a while to organize all my craft supplies.  I'll admit it was much bigger than I had expected.  My kids call it "the fridge" because it is about the size of one.  Once I took it out of the packing crate I thought to myself "what have I done"  Now that I have most of my craft supplies organized in it I LOVE IT.  It is so nice to have everything all in one place rather than a room here, a closet there, a cupboard here.  

The Young Men/ Priests had a golfing activity yesterday with their Dads.  This was Derek's first time golfing.  He was a decent golfer and they had a nice time.

Curtis' office did some volunteer at a place in Phoenix that helps with Human trafficking

A hospital vist and a CJ RE event

 I want to be better and writing weekly.  Nothing spectacular happened this week, except someone told me they blogged every Sunday about their family.  Way back when Dax was a baby, that was my intention, then I would pretty much have a record of my kid's entire life.  Here I go..

On Sunday we had Stake Conference. Before church Curtis asked me if I was going to do the Kentucky Derby party this year now that COVID was no longer a threat.  Initially, I wasn't excited, it is a lot of work. Then he went to church and mentioned it to someone and they seemed excited.  So I enlisted this gal, Megan to be my sidekick.  It suddenly seemed more bearable with a partner. The planning has begun.

On Tuesday Megan came by to assess the party situation, then we went to Lunch Bunch with some RS ladies at Oreganos.  While I was at lunch my brother called to tell me there were fires in Flagstaff and they were evacuating homes.  He may need to come down.  Not a good day for that to happen as we already had plans for Curtis' friend, Dan from San Diego to come to stay with us.

Later that night Curtis picked up Dan from the airport, they got to our house at about 8:45 p.m.  Dan looked exhausted.  We showed him around then put him to bed.  About an hour later Curtis said Dan had texted him from downstairs.  Dan wasn't feeling well and was going to call 911.  Apparently, he was having chest pains and his side went numb.  He was afraid he was having a heart attack.  So Curtis got out of bed and met Dan at the ER.  They ran a bunch of tests and said it must have been stress.  Dan is a very healthy guy and not one to go to the Doctor easily.  He must have been terrified.  They got home about 2:30 a.m.. Dan was in town to speak at a Real Estate Event Curtis was hosting at his office.  He was worried he wouldn't be able to function on so little sleep.  He pulled it together. The entire event was a success.  Curtis always does a good job motivating people and getting them to rally.

Derek is taking a culinary class to fill one of his electives to graduate.  His assignment was to bake some type of break.  I taught him how to make my Mom's roll recipe also the same recipe as the Lion House Rolls.  Derek did a great job I walked him through the process.  Then his girlfriend, Jocelyn came over a few days later and they made rolls again.  The second time Derek pretty much did the entire thing on his own.  He nailed it the rolls were fantastic.  My mom would be proud.

...and you get a NEW CAR...

 The car Derek had been driving is getting old, starting to have problems and we felt like a graduation gift that would be a good time to replace it.

Like everything else in the world, there are supply chain issues and too much demand for supply.  This is a result of the COVID pandemic, Russia invading Ukraine just to mention a few reasons.  We ended up giving it to him a month early because we found a car, and the chances of one being available in a month are unknown.

In Today's News...

Treyson was ordained a Teacher by Curtis, and I was asked to give a talk on our Divine Nature. All went well.

Sinus Surgery

 Dax had sinus surgery on Friday 1/7/22

.  I had known he had a deviated septum for several years.  When Dax was in middle school he did allergy shots for 2+ years and they didn't seem to help.  The Allergy Doctor suggested we see an Ear Nose Throat  (ENT)specialist.  At the time the ENT told me Dax had a deviated septum and he would need surgery when he got older.   At that time I thought thanks for that info but that didn't answer our question of why the Allergy shots didn't work. Dax was constantly congested and overall miserable.

A few months back Curtis wanted a solution so he searched and found out about this balloon sinus procedure.  We drove all the way to Avondale to visit this ENT. The Dr determined that Dax absolutely needed surgy, to fix the deviated septum and clean out a bunch of infections.  We wanted to wait until Dax finished his school semester and after our trip to Hawaii, we knew he couldn't fly for some time after surgery.

Dax finally had the surgery.  The Dr. said he was a mess, full of puss and infection.  I saw Dax immedietly after surgery, he was pretty drugged up at the time but he was amazed at how well he could breathe.  The Dr told him that will only get better since he had splits and bandages in his nose.

That euphoria was short-lived as the pain killers wore off and his sinus started to swell from the surgery.  The next week was rough.  I know Dax was completely miserable.  The splints in his sinus were incredibly uncomfortable, he said he felt like his nose was plugged 120% of it's capacity.  

The painkillers didn't last long enough.  Everything was painful.  Day by day he did feel a bit better. All this was normal and expected.

On Thursday he was able to have the splints removed.  This was huge, Dax felt much better after those came out and every day as he heals he says he can breathe better and better.  We are looking forward to him having a better quality of life being able to breathe normally.  For the record, I feel like a bad mom for not taking the first ENT seriously about a deviated septum being a problem.

Mele Kalikemaka

Our kids are spoiled and we know it. The past few Christmas' seemed monotious. Pretty much buying each other things we don't want or need, just for the sake of opening something on Christmas. I actually ended up returning several gifts that we gave to Dax and Derek because they didn't care, want or need the gift. Instead of a repeat of the last few Christmas we decided to make memories instead. We chose to go to Hawaii for various reasons. We were not sure if our kids were completely on board with the idea. Trey at first said he would rather have presents, since he had just had his birthday I asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he couldn't think of anything. My biggest concern was Derek since it was going to be his 18th birthday on December 23, he had to be on board with this idea, Otherwise I knew it would not be a fun trip. On top of Hawaii being the Christmas gift for the family, Derek's birthday gift was he could invite his girlfriend, Jocelyn. We were already renting a 3 bedroom condo and using flight miles for the tickets so it wasn't that big of a deal to add one more. We had a great time, so many things went right. Here is the highlight reel.

This is Kap Tafiti.  I went to school with him at BYU-H.  He is still running the PCC Samoan Village 30+ years and still climbing coconut trees at 53 years old.

Dax admiring art at Kualoa Ranch

The T Rex is after them.

Trey and Jocelyn admiring Dinosaur bones, I mean styrofoam movie props.

Our Christmas stockings

I think this was Derk's favorite gift a disturving "St Nicholas" Cage ornament.

Family Surf Lessons

Totally worth it to bring Jocelyn,  Derek Smiled and had a great time.

Sunset at Turtle Bay