Birthday Wishes...

Today is Jared's dad's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! This is my favorite picture of Rachel with Grandpa Hansen. When she was little(r) she used to love to sit on his lap at his computer and "work" with him. He's always been so patient and interested in what the kids have to say. We love you!

There are a few others I've missed over the past few weeks.

Reyna and Ethan! Happy 4th and 2nd birthday's!! We miss you!

Suzanne...so happy you are here in Boise now! Hope you had a great day!

And to my friend Jen...hope it was a great day--even though it seems Jonah broke his arm at your party ;) Jen has made my transition to Idaho bearable! I'm so lucky to have found a good friend so quickly! I have to confess--when Jared suggested we go over so I could meet you I was expecting you to be in your early 20's and really annoying! So glad I was wrong! Thanks for all you do for us!

I did it...

After a long sabbatical of sorts...I went to the dentist today. I am embarrassed to say how long it has been. But all is well, I do have 2 cavities, but I was expecting him to recommend removing all my teeth and make me some dentures. I'll take the cavities. I don't know why I was so nervous to go...but I have overcome my fear. I'm back on the smile wagon!

In case any of you are sceptical of my comments on Jonah and reading, I was at the school today and took this picture. He did not know I was there.

It was recess and there is my son sitting in the middle of the field reading! I need to send this picture to Mrs. Grabruck--his 2nd grade teacher in Texas. She'd never believe it!

I took Jonah to the doctor yesterday. We switched pediatricians...let's just say I didn't love the first one we tried. So now we are going to a doctor who went to medical school with Jared's brother Matt. I guess he's been trying to get Matt to move out to Boise for some time. Anyway when he came in to look at Jonah's wrist he asked me if Jonah or Seth (who was also with me) were the kids with diabetes or epilepsy--"No", I replied, "These are just my two accident prone children."

So the verdict on Jonah's wrist...It is broken. We will be going in for a cast on Thursday once we get the swelling down a bit.

And the summer injuries begin...

Happy Day!

Prepare to be totally bored by this post, but I am bursting with joy!


The UPS man just stopped by...something he NEVER does. I guess I need to order stuff for him to bring me something. Anyway, he stopped and handed ME a package! I said, "I never get anything!" and then I looked at the return address--Medtronic. "Oh, medical supplies" I said with a sigh of disappointment. But then I came in the house to see what it was we had received, and it was this thing of beauty...



Let me explain why this is such a wonderful gift. Last summer when Rachel got her new pump it came with a BD meter. The new pumps have a fancy feature wherein the BD meter would wirelessly send the glucose # to the pump and the pump calculates how much insulin is needed. How great is that. No more math in my head--or guesses rather.


So we were so excited about the new features and what a great help it was going to be for us as Rachel is older and starting to not want me to come and sit with her at her friends houses anymore. ;)


Well, when I went to pick up her first prescription of test strips I discovered that our co-pay was a mere $60--PER MONTH! As nice as the feature was we just couldn't do it...so we went back to our $5 a month One Touch meters.


So this meter that we received today is the new MiniMed wireless Meter that connects with the Paradigm pump!!! So as I'm sure you've put it all together by now...we are in business for a small fee of $5 a month. I feel like we've won the lottery.


You may wonder why this is such a big deal. Well, it means a whole lot less work for me...every 12 weeks when we take Rachel to the doctor we have to take a log of ALL her blood sugars and insulin doses. You do the math--8-10 tests a dayX7 says a weekX12 weeks. It's not fun, and I can never seem to stay on top of it. Now all her blood glucose #'s will be on the pump along with her insulin doses and how many carbs she eats (which she enters in manually). So then all we have to do each week is hook her up to the computer and download all the info! And in another few years...it can be her job to download herself and report to mom and dad each week! I'm seeing the light! The end of this tunnel will never come, because I'm her mom and will ALWAYS worry about her, but it gets brighter all the time!


Have a happy day!

Catching up...

I wish I could say I've been busy doing good things and that is why I haven't really posted for a while. I guess keeping everyone healthy and happy is a good thing, but I don't feel like I've accomplished much else as of late. If you care to know what we've been doing here it is. 0


Rachel's Birthday:



Rachel had a great day. I still can't believe she's 11. What a great girl she is. She didn't have a party this year...we're trying to do the "even years only" thing. She was fine with that. We did take the family to see "Horton Hears a Who"--VERY CUTE. I loved it. A few days later Luke said, "They should really make a book out of that movie!"





Rachel's BIG present was a cello. She has decided that she wants to play the cello in the orchestra for her music elective next year. Her dad's dream come true! We found a nice used one on Craig's List. She is in love and can hardly wait to start taking lessons.




















I love this picture of Jared giving a cello demonstration...I was making fun of him sharing his "expertise" with the kids...















She got an outfit for Ruthie...her diabetic teddy bear she got when we moved to Houston.


Some books...which she finished in about 3 days.

A new swim suit...do you know how hard it is to find a modest swim suit these days? I finally found this cute one at Kohl's. I kept finding myself looking at the cute one's at Target--in the little girl section--with cherries and ruffles. I really wish they came in a 12...although I don't know that Rachel would be so happy with it anymore! Anyway, the one I found was a Speedo and will be great for swim team which starts in June.


I love her face in the picture where she opened her bow. The cute thing was that I think she thought we had just got her her own bow...initially I don't think she realized there was a whole cello to go with it!

The next night we had Grandma & Grandpa Hansen, Matt & Suzanne & their 4 kids, Angela & Roy and their 3 kids and Annie and Travis over for cake and ice cream.


Rachel and I (mostly I) decided a "R" cake would be perfect for this year. I generally leave the cake decorating to Jared, however, he was busy with some projects and I just don't find joy in spending my whole day decorating a cake that will be devoured in minutes. Rachel was happy with the "R". I baked it and cut it and she decorated it. Another perk to having an 11 year old. I highly recommend it!






Jared left the next Monday morning for San Diego. Back in February he found out that he was selected as a finalist for the Circle Award at HP--a marketing award within the company. The finalist's (from all over the world) gathered in CA for a week of speakers and fun. He had a great time, AND at the awards ceremony he found out HE WON! Needless to say we are so proud of him! Way to go babe!


Jonah has been kidnapped by aliens...sometime in the last few months. The child will not stop reading! I even had to threaten to take away his book the other morning because he wasn't getting his shoes on for school. Weird! He cleaned up shop on his ISAT's! We are so proud of him. It is amazing...they are computerized now, so they get their scores immediately when they finish the test.



Yesterday we had a birthday picnic for Grandpa Hansen...it was great and as always Jonah had a fun time with his Uncle Roy...here they are trying to knock each other off the balance beam.

We went on a walk on the greenbelt--it was a beautiful day. I am going to take Jonah into the doctor this week-whether he likes it or not-he fell off his scooter last Saturday and hurt his wrist. He's been trying to convince me all week it's fine, but I'm finding it isn't. We'll see...


Luke had his last flag football game on Saturday. He had a lot of fun playing. He played center, which was a great spot for him right now. He's still having a lot of seizures and so he is often not quite sure what is going on around him. His coach was very patient with him and helped him stay on track when he was supposed to snap the ball.


We had another Neurology appointment a week or so ago. We determined that the Kepra was not going to work. This was the last medication on the list for Absence Epilepsy. So now we are in experimentation mode. We started a new one Zonegran...to early to tell if it is doing anything. He is on his full dose as of Friday, and has been VERY emotional. We'll wait another week to determine if the medication has anything to do with it.



If the Zonegran doesn't work then we will be heading up to Portland/Seattle to see a Pediatric Epileptologist. At that point we can determine what steps to take. Because Absent Epilepsy only counts for about 10% of epilepsy and Luke is now in the 5-10% who are resistant to medication there's not a lot of info on what to try.


Other than that he's doing great! We have signed him up for swim team along with Rachel and Jonah. Over Spring break they got to do a lot of swimming and he seemed to do okay. When he had seizures in the water he would instinctively tread water until it was over. So we think he'll be fine, we'll just have to stay close in case he needs help.

So what about Seth?


I could probably start a whole new blog just on him. Here are some photos of the latest...



The father of a boy in his preschool class flew his Apache Helicopter to the school for the kids to see! How cool is that?! Seth was in heaven. I kept hearing him say, "This is SO COOL! I want to fly in one of these!" He was also quite fascinated by the big bullet he got to hold.


I have to say it was one of my favorite preschool "field trips". We didn't have to go anywhere and it was really interesting. Watching it take off was the best part! I convinced Suzanne to bring her kids over to watch. I think they had a good time too. It was amazing to watch it hover as it warmed up.


Seth has become quite interested in my things lately. He keeps getting into my "jewels" as he calls them. I guess I should probably hide anything that's worth anything.


He's also decided to take a try at my make-up. Here he's done his eyebrows--with my mascara, and you can't really see, but he's got on some lipstick as well. I also caught him coloring his toe nails with a purple marker the other day because "boys toe nails ARE purple!"

Last night we had the Adult Meeting for Stake Conference. Our Apostle Elder Bednar was here to reorganize our Stake Presidency. It was a great meeting, as was today's. Jared bumped into Tom and Ruby Chandler at the temple on Saturday morning. They were in our congregation in Tomball for a year. Their daughter and son-in-law are good friends of ours (and Janalen was Rachel's piano teacher). Tom was Jared's secretary in the Young Men's for a while as well. Anyway, Janalen is in town with the girls so Tom and Ruby invited us over for dinner tonight. It was so fun to be with them. We love their family.


That's all for now...we'll see what I can get accomplished this week!

The child who won't eat ANYTHING...

Those of you who know Seth know that he is a TERRIBLE eater. His diet consists mainly of breakfast foods, chicken nuggets and fruit.

He did take a few bites of white rice last night, so we are making some progress. On Monday afternoons he goes over to the Johnson's to play with his friends Luke and Nick. This was his report for today...

Seth: I ate Maggie's dog food. It was yummy.
Me: Why did you eat Maggie's dog food?
Seth: Because Luke told me to.

Apparently we have been taking the wrong approach. We either need to have Luke come over at meal time or offer him Purina.

A great surprise!

On Saturday we had some fun guests! Karlye, Kevin, Easton and Emmy came to visit! Karlye was one of my Young Women in our ward in California long ago.

Easton is a couple of months older than Seth and they seemed to hit it off.

IT was so fun to have them and I hope they'll be heading through Boise again sometime soon!

I don't know how accurate this is....

"G" is for Grandma

...when I asked Seth why he put a "G" on his forehead he said, "because 'G' is for grandma!"

And so he is paying tribute to them today with a "G" he wrote on his forehead.

"Friendship" Bread

I really think the Amish should consider re-naming it. Something like "A project for you because you seem to have too much free time" bread? It's catchy right?!

To me it does not emit friendly feelings. I don't know maybe I just need an attitude adjustment. I have a problem sometime with people imposing projects on me. Right now I feel cursed with some very friendly neighbors who I know are just trying to show some kindness. The problem lies in that I can hardly take care of my 4 children let alone a bag of goo that needs to be mashed each day for 11 days. This is why we don't have any pets right now--they would not live because I would forget to take care of them. And so I have neglected 2 pouches of friendship goo that have been delivered in the past month...

So I will not be able to pass along the Amish tradition...I think I'll just bake someone some cookies and call it good.

Happy Birthday Miss Jill!!!

It would take hours if not days to write all the things I love and admire about my friend Jill...here are a few.

I love her laugh! It is contagious.
She is kind to EVERYONE.
She is a hard worker and is always moving--much like her mom! (We love you Grandma Kay!)
She has a great sense of humor.
She is a great mom.
She is the most compassionate and thoughtful person I know.
She loves Hollywood gossip as much as me!
She watches Little House re-runs and cries!

One of the things I miss the most is when some major catastrophie happend, like the start of the war, or the death of Anna-Nicole Smith we would talk on the phone for an hour watching CNN at our respective houses and discuss what they were discussing on the tv. I'm sure our children were safe and being enriched somewhere in one of our homes!

I'm so lucky to call you my friend.
Hope you had a great day!

I hate my oven.

First off...my cutest friend Anna-Lisa wins the prize for making me feel the most loved this week She sent me an email saying that she'd bought some cherry chip cake mix at Kroger and couldn't help think of me! Thank you AL. I'm glad my cherry chip legend is living on!

If you have not tried cherry chip cake mix and it is available in your area--don't laugh, for the first 6 years we lived in Houston I couldn't find it there and had to have it imported fro SLC--give it a shot. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

I was actually first introduced to Cherry Chip by the Hansen's. It must have been early on in our dating because--you guessed it--our wedding cake was cherry chip!

So, here in Idaho they don't have rules about Birthday treats and/or treats made from home, so Rachel requested that I make ice cream cone cupcakes for her class. My mom used to make these for us when I was a kid. I always loved it. Somehow, though, my mom's always looked perfect and mine all look like Mt. Vesuvius just erupted. I have tried many different approaches, but with the same results...and to make matters worse this time...I don't know how to use my oven here. It is a convection oven and quite frankly I don't know how to "convect". My mother-in-law suggested reading the owner's manual, which is a fantastic idea, except for that I forget how much I hate the oven until whatever I've put in there is ruined...maybe she could read it for me and highlight the important parts?? ;)

So, I hope I don't humiliate my daughter with my lack of baking skills. I think she'll be fine.

Where has the time gone?

(1 month old)


It is hard to believe my baby girl is 11 today! We have enjoyed every moment! I could not have asked for a bigger blessing than to have her 1st! What would I do without her.

She is a hard worker, kind, a great sister, sensitive, funny, loves the gospel, responsible...an all around GREAT girl! Happy GOLDEN birthday Rachel! We love you!!




(1 year old)

(2 years old)

(3 years old)

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(11 years old)

Is it just me or...

does anybody else get overwhelmingly tired when the clock strikes 4 p.m.?

I don't know what it is, but even if I get a little power nap during the day I still feel like I want to crawl into bed. I'm certain there is no connection with the fact that my kids get home from school at 4.

I have to say that as much as the thought of summer sometimes make me want to curl up in the fetal position...I am looking forward to no homework...and math facts...and reading logs...and making lunches in the morning...and I am looking forward to pool time...floating the river...park days, and trips to SLC. That is what Luke has requested for his birthday!

I guess I should be enjoying the fact that these are the last 8 weeks that all of my children will be at the same school and therefore leaving at the same time. It is going to be a great effort for me to get up an hour earlier next year to get Rachel off...I may just have to say goodbye the night before...

Off to start dinner.

What's wrong with this picture?

So this morning I left at 7:30 a.m. to go to the temple. Jared go the kids off to school and then my friend Molly picked up Seth and watched him so Jared could get to work. It was a fabulous day!

So the kids got home and I discovered this...

As if the child doesn't already have enough problems. Fortunately in 1st grade kids are as unobservant as their fathers...no one said anything to him. I love you Jared!! ;)

OK--April Fool's!

I'm sorry...Jen made me do it. Peer Pressure! ;)

I really just am starving for some attention like Sarah--my blog has been lacking comments as of late. I'm getting a complex.

As much as I would LOVE to move back to Chicago...we are here in Boise. But...if the planets align and my dreams come true we'll get to move back east some day.

Have a good night.

He got the job!!!!!

Jared applied for a job in Chicago and today we got word he got it! We are excited to be heading back to the windy city, but sad that the Zavaleta's won't be there to greet us. We have loved being by our families, and I'm sure we'll be back in the near future, he just couldn't pass this up.

Details to follow...

Have a good one!

Pi anyone?

When I was in high school I had great friends. Late one night I was driving around with Jeff and Ben...Kristi may have been there too...

Anyway, one of the guys looked at the clock and exclaimed, "It's pi!" meaning, of course that it was 3:14 a.m. And thus the celebration of pi was born. A song and ritual were created and each time the clock hit 3:14 a.m. we celebrated pi. We also developed a tradition of meeting at a local Denny's to celebrate. Somehow it was not hard for most of us to be available in the wee hours of the morning. At one point my mom pulled me aside one day and said, "We know you're sneaking out your window and the screen is starting to get bent, so just go out the front door and be careful!" It kinda sucked some of the fun out of the whole "sneaking out" thing, but did make it easier to meet up with my friends. No I will not be extending the same courtesy to my children.

Last night Luke came into our room...I looked at the clock and it was 3:14 a.m. I couldn't help but sing the "Ode to Pi" in my head as I helped him into the bed. Pi has been celebrated in many places...I know I have celebrated it in several different countries...and now we can add Idaho to that list. What an accomplishment.

On another note...

Luke had his MRI yesterday. Because you can't eat anything after midnight the night before they schedule them early...we left at 7:15 to be at the hospital for check-in and for him to get his IV. I'm sorry to brag, but he is a great kid.

When we got there I told the nurse I thought he could do it without being put under...Thanks Jill for your encouragement on that and Ryan for being such a great friend and example! That kid is an MRI Pro!

So it was obvious that the staff was not pleased with my request to forego the sedation...in their defense, if he wasn't cooperative it could mean a huge inconvinience for them and re-scheduling. It was our lucky day because the 8:30 appointment didn't show, so they took Luke early and said they'd give it a try without because they still had time to sedate him if they needed too. About 45 minutes later they came out all smiles everyone praising Luke and what a great kid he was...the nurse even said she wished he could come back and show other kids how to do it.

The best news is that...the MRI was clean...which means the headaches can be directly attributed to the medication. He hasn't been complaining as much lately so we're hoping the Kepra won't bother him as much.

So to those who care, "Ode to Pi" and good day!