This year he chose to go to Teppanaki to celebrate his and Kenna's Birthday Dinner. We like to take the family out to dinner for each person's birthday. We usually invite Grandma and Grandpa Palmer to come with us.
Thanksgiving was at our house this year for my side of the family. Unfortunetly now that Austin is married we have to share him with Kenna's family so they went to her familys side for this year.
Gotta have the rainbow jello. It's a tradition.
I cant seem to get the picture to turn but we have done lots of puzzles this year as well.
We also got our first snow storm of the year too at this time.
My hair is finally starting to grow a little. I have enjoyed it being short, but also miss having some to curl. I dont think I will grow it out very long but not sure I'm ready to stay short permanently either.
This picture doesnt really show it, but she sure got some chipmunk cheeks. Especially on one side.
More puzzeling.
So as time has passed my back has started to get worse again with the nerve being pinched. I was trying to fix it by seeing the chiropractor, but it just wasnt getting much better. I really wasnt as bad as the first time I started having problems with my back and the nerves. I dont think I will ever or at least hope I dont ever experience what I did back at the end of 2009 beginning of 2010. That was the worst pain I have ever went through. And there is nothing you can do for nerve pain. It was so miserable I couldnt walk, sit, stand, lay down and get any relief. I had lost the feeling in my lower leg. After I finally got the disectomy it was such a huge relief.n It took 3 months to finally get the feeling back in my leg but it helped so much. They told me I would only be good for about 10 years till I would probably have to do another surgery and they were right on. I started experiencing more nerve pain last summer just on and off. I work out alot and sometimes something I would do would irritate it. I tried to slack off more on my workouts and try to not do so much but it didnt seem to matter a whole lot. still I was feeling pretty good as far as still being able to do pretty much what I wanted without being in to horrible of pain, but it definitely was scaring me a bit because I didnt want to go back to experiencing that level of pain again so I decided to start doing some testing. I first got the MRI which showed the area at my L5S1 where they did the surgery last time had completely collapsed so I was rubbing bone on bone which caused some bone spurs and was pinching the nerve.
Why I wasnt experiencing more nerve pain then I was was a complete miracle. I think Heavenly Father had mercy on me. So we knew was going to have to have another surgery and this time I would have to have a fusion. The doctor said to try and go as long as I could and until the pain was unbearable before doing the surgery. However I did not want to go to that point. Who would want to be in that much pain again. Plus we had planned a trip for the first week of June to take Jessie on her senior trip to Belize so I wanted to make sure I was good and healed before that. My L4 is also herniated and there was question or not if it was bad enough to go in and fuse that as well or wait on that one so they sent me in for a discograph to see where the majority of my pain was coming from. Oh my gosh never ever have that test done. It was so painful. They have you lay down on a table on your stomach and they stick little needles into your back in the discs and inject air pressure to see if it gives you pain in those nerve areas. Oh my gosh I thought I was going to die. My whole body was shaking and sweating and I was clenching the pillow till there wasnt much left of it. Owie!!
They decided the L4 disc was not bad enough to do the fusion on that one yet so we would just do the surgery on L5S1. As you can see in the image there is no disc in L5 and very little in L4 and both are bulged.
Santa usually comes to see all the kids and get pictures with the family.
So this month was also our adopted daughter as we call her wedding. They are good friends of ours from Michigan and Allie is best friends with their oldest daughter and has been ever since. Both Aubrey and Lily who is also one of Jessie's best friends came out here to go to college and so on the holidays where they could not go home back to Michigan we would get to steal them and have them come stay with us. Our families are still close and now their family has moved to Colorado so they are a little bit closer. Its been awesome to have Jessie and Allie get to spend time with their daughters. Anyways Lily is just finishing her mission to Paris France and Aubrey got married. This was the morning of their wedding day. We had to leave early to get to the Mt. Timpanogas Temple. We got to watch the beautiful sunrise. It was a beautiful day despite the freezing temps.
And what was very awesome I got to see one of my good friends from Michigan at the reception. Dee and her family moved to Arizona so she drove up for the wedding. It was cool to see her again.
Allie and I posing with the Bourrets youngest son Jay. All 3 of their boys are adopted and are such great kids.
The work going onto the stairwell sabbotage. Wen had a huge 65inch tv box at the entrance of the stairs with a queen air mattress on top of that with the great big luv sack bean bag against them holding them in and then the baby gate. and then the whole stairwell filled with 300 balloons and mouse traps on the last few stairs at the top. And tons of string criss crossing through the banister and then a whole roll of saran wrap closing the entrance at the top of the stairs.
It was crazy. We are running out of ideas on what to do. Christmas morning Steve and I and my parents sit at the top of the stairs with nerf guns ready to unleash on them.
Jessie thought she was clever and would just go up over the railing. Fortunately with all the bean bag and other stuff it allowed her to get high enough to do that. Austin had his pocket knife and was able to cut his way through the string and saran wrap to make it to the top. But had to set the mouse traps off so he didn't get his feet in them.
One of our Christmas puzzles.
Maya loves her squeaky toys.
Ozzie too until maya takes it away and claims it as hers.
Kaia
Logan was so excited to get her Got Scoliosis shirt.
Even Ozzie tried helping with the unwrapping.
Over the Christmas break we always try to get at least 1 ski day in. I was having my back surgery at the end of January so I had to get at least one in.
It was a great day.This was Kaia's first time skiing and she did really well. After a few lessons from Steve she was up on the slopes.
This year we also decided to go with Austin and Collin and go do a couple games of Battle Ball. It's like a big nerf gun war but with air canisters to make the bullets go super fast and far. And they hurt like heck to get nailed with one. They leave some pretty good welts. And the welts last for days.
We also went and did another Escape room adventure. We went to one last year for Christmas and enjoyed it so much that I would like to make it a yearly tradition as well.
Because my back surgery was the last week of January I knew I would just be getting home from the hospital on Jessie's birthday so we decided to go do our family birthday celebration a couple days before my surgery. She wanted to try Tona's Sushi this year. She had found that she really liked the sushi from Smiths so wanted to try Tona's since we always rave about how good it is. She thought it was just ok but liked Smiths rolls better. Say What?? She is titched in the head. Nothing is better then Tona's rolls.
Also in December Maya went into heat again and we tried to take her to the breeders house again to have a 2nd go around with their dog and she came home like this. We have no idea how this happened and neither did the breeders so they said. We took her to the doctors and they felt like it was some kind of blunt force trauma which didn't make us feel very well about our breeders. I don't want to blame or assume but every time we have taken her there she comes home sick and usually with something wrong. She didn't get a tie in this time either. They claimed they took her in to get artificially inseminated so they said but she never got pregnant and couldn't produce a receipt for proof.
Next time we will take her in to have 3 AI treatments and hope that it will finally take and we will get puppies. truthfully the past 2 times was actually a blessing she didn't get pregnant because around the time she would of had puppies something crazy was going on so it ended up being a blessing in disguise. But we hope we get puppies this time around. She is such a sweet girl.
Sisters!
I call this one the Charlie's Angels.. Younder generation will not get this. Go google it.
My little bat dog.
Now here come the later part of the story I talked about earlier with the Girl's concerts. So about Christmas time we started hearing about China and these sicknesses going around that seemed pretty serious and was killing alot of the older population of China. It seemed to be this serious upper respiratory virus. We didnt pay too much attention to it since it was just over in China. However more and more cases started to be announced and more and more deaths. There was news that a cruise ship had found several cases on it and was quarntining everyone on the ship. Now people were taking this serious and starting to panic. It was crazy everyone was going to the stores and buying up all the toilet paper, hand sanitizers, clorox wipes, masks,and water. Soon it turned into everything. All food items were gone in the entire united states. We would literally go to the store and all the shelves would be completely bare.
It was super sad because the elderly would go and there would be nothing for them to buy. People were panic buying and hoarding. It soon got to the point that the grocery stores declared the first couple of hours in the mornings for just the senior citizens to shop and there could only be no more then 50 people in the store at a time. We started to see it spreading through china and neighboring countries. The president put out a 6 foot away rule from anybody. Asked us to start self isolating. The president started declaring states of emergencies. They had so called traced it to an infected bat that was served to a man at a live street market in Wuhan China. More on this later.
It didnt take long at all for the pandemic to spread and hit every country world wide. It was seeming to spread through droplets of mucous or saliva from an infected person and then someone else picking it up through touching a surface that the virus is on and then touching their faces and the virus entering in through our eyes, nose or mouth and then getting into our lungs which then causes pneumonia. In alot of cases with those who have other immunodeficiencies they start having issues with breathing and have to be sedated or put onto comas and put on ventilators to be able to breath. Alot who get to this point dye. Then there is those who have such mild symptoms that they dont even know they have it thus another reason why it is spreading so fast. We learned it could stay on surfaces up to several days and the incubation period was 14 days for someone to show symptoms. This was what was hard because no one knew if they were sick until they started showing symptoms. By then it was to late and every where they went in the prior 14 days and anyone they came into contact with now had the possibility of being exposed and having it too and that's why it is spreading like wild fires. And in the beginning because no one was prepared for this kind of epidemic there was not enough tests so unless you were super sick with fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath to the point of having to go to the hospital you couldn't get tested and was told to just self isolate in your home and if one person in your home came down with symptoms to isolate them to a room and the rest of the family to stay away and the whole family had to self isolate for 14 days. We had a little scare because Austin was approached by security at his work and told he may have been exposed to someone who might have the virus and had to wait to see what the test came back as. We found out it was the 70 year old who he carpools with to work. The test came back negative but the guy never returned to work so who knows if it was a false negative or not. The very next day Austin came down sick and he had to go to work but by end of night they had to escort him off the premises and told him to call a doctor the next day to see if he should be tested. We had all been with his that day before when we had church in our home. So we were all a bit worried. However it just turned out to be a cold. At least we think so. Logan caught it but never got a fever so who knows.
Most all the missionaries world wide got sent home. The MTC was shut down to any more coming in. We have never seen anything like this. This will definitely go down in history. We watched a movie called Contagion made in 2017. It is very scary how it is very much what we are going through right now. Down to the source of the virus. A bat and a pig. There is talk that this may very well be a virus leashed on the world by the chinese communist government. Very scary.
Tons of people are getting sick and many are dyeing. New York was hit the hardest here in the states because of all the population and being on top of everybody. Soon the president called for all public gatherings of 50 or more people to be shut down so our temples and churches all got shut down. Restaurants were getting shut down unless they could provide curbside take out. Our schools got shut down and schooling had to go online. People have had to either work from home or if you dont have a job that can allow you to do that you are laid off or let go. It's super sad. Millions have lost their jobs and are applying for unemployment. Our economy has bottomed out. Stocks have tanked. It's terrible. They are comparing this time to the great depression. It has been crazy.
Every day we wait for the news and briefings on social media to see how much it has spread and see what the numbers are for the day and how many deaths. It seems to affect those who are immuno compromised the worst. At first they thought it was just the elderly, but now we are seeing it hit all people, but mostly adults. Some babies have gotten it and died. Most of the united states has issued a mandatory quarantine where you are to stay in your homes and are only able to leave for 1 hour a day to exercise outside and go to the grocery store for essentials, and go to doctors visits. It has been so crazy. Parts of Utah has gone into mandatory lock down but others have not. Alot of people feel we should be put into lock down to help stop the spread but then others are fighting it and not adhering to the rules of social distancing or wearing masks out in public. They have cancelled all schools holding school in the building for the rest of the school year. It has been sad for the seniors which includes Jessie this year because all their lasts for everything has been cancelled. They may not even get their graduation this year. There is talk about having a virtual graduation or maybe trying to hold it at the end of summer if they are allowed to start having group interaction by then. There is talk that we are not even sure if schools will open in the fall because it may take a year to get a vaccine and they dont want to see another big wave of sicknesses and deaths for opening up the public to soon. Its a very uncertain time right now. Nobody knows what is going to happen. The president wants to hopefully soon start opening up the economy again but many are afraid of the virus going rampant again. New york had to bring in refrigerated trailers to put all the dead bodies in because there was no room in the morgues. They have had to have mass burials. It is so sad. We have not had the masks and protective gear or respirators for our hospitals and healthcare workers. They have had to ask China for assistance for medical supplies.
And if all this wasn't bad enough on March 18th We had a 5.7 earthquake hit. Luckily it wasnt any stronger then that, but we all felt it and are doors were ratteling and we could hear the thundering like noise and could feel our beds move and shake. It was in magna so some of the homes near there had more damage. but it was quite scary and not knowing what on earth was going on and if another big one was going to hit us. We were all scrambeling around trying to get emergency bags packed and ready to leave if we had to. Wondering if the 2nd coming was coming. It was crazy. We have had thousands of aftershocks since then but havn't felt most of them here where we live.
The cool thing about all this is to see the Lords hand in all this. We have been told for years to have a food storage and to get out of debt and now with the new come follow me curriculum with gospel studying it has prepared us to be able to bring the church into our homes. It has been so special to see my son and husband and father bless and pass the sacrament in our home and to do zoom gospel studies with all our family over the internet. How cool is that. Those who were prepared with food storage did not have to panic and worry about needing to get food. This pandemic has allowed us to all be home together establishing closer family relations and spending time with one another. It has been awesome. More people have turned to God. We have had a couple worldwide fasts now. I know this wasnt just a random thing. Everything happens for a reason and you can truly see the signs of the times coming forth. It has been hard for all the extroverts but for us introverts it has been awesome and no big deal for us. I am quite ok staying cooped up at home with just my family. I love it. Logan and steve, and sometimes Allie has a hard time. They need the social part of it.
They have had quite some funny memes since the pandemic hit.
Grandma and Grandpa went to florida right before all the shut downs happened. They were lucky they got to go. We had heard some people on flights coming back from florida the same day had contracted the virus. Scary!
Before we all got shut down to our homes we got to celebrate Allie's 23rd birthday.
One of her best birthday gifts came in the mail the day before. Her nursing program acceptance letter.
One of her best birthday gifts came in the mail the day before. Her nursing program acceptance letter.
Fun little ride out by the Golden Spike area.
One of the coolest things about having our sunday church at home is being able to video conference in to our family hand have gospel study with them.
So I figured while we are stuck in quarantine why not do something crazy with my hair. Didnt quite turn out as I was hoping. it was supposed to be a more purple color, but owell.
Today's current covid-19 numbers. Everyday it goes up, but the pres. is talking about opening back up the economy which is pretty stupid. I understand why they want to get things back up and going to help with the economy and the millions who are without job, but I think we are just asking for the pandemic to get worse and keep spreading by opening to soon. They have opened up the state parks, and gyms right now and talk by the govenors is to start opening things back up by early May... Guess we will see.
.gif)
