Relay for Life 2014

This year Relay for Life was held out in Nibley at the Heritage Park.  I wasn't too sure about the venue at first, but I ended up really liking it.  I hope they do it there again!

Travis actually got to go on stage this year and play guitar.  He had an entire hour to set up, play and take down.  His mom and dad and Jamie came out to listen/watch him.  He did a really good job too.

My sister did some face painting as a fundraiser.  My kids loved it.

 Samantha performed with her dance group again this year.  They did all their dances they learned in the summer session.

More face painting photos

Final lap

It was nice to not be in charge of the silent auction this year.  I was a bit worried when I saw how high some of the minimum bids were.  I found out later that all but one item sold so I was happy to hear that.  It seemed like there were fewer items than what there has been in the past but it could have just been the way it was set up.

Our total $ number at the end of the event (not including the silent auction money) was just over $64,000.  I was disappointed to hear that.  Granted, $64K is still a lot of money, and we can turn money in until the end of the calendar year, BUT we've never had a number that low in the entire six years I've been doing Relay.  In fact, we've never done less than $90K as a final total.  I sure hope our numbers go up.  I can't figure out why our numbers were so low because according to our chair, we were on target all year long.  Plus, I know that my team did more money on site than we have EVER done.  We did over $300 in fundraising on site.  We never do more than about $50 and because of that we almost didn't take anything up there with us.  I'm glad we did!  I've already said I will help again next year.  I'd prefer not to do Sponsorship but now that I've done it 3 yrs in a row, it's a bit easy to do it.  It's really just a matter of making time to go out and make the contacts face to face instead of over the phone.  Mom and I have already started formulating ideas on how to improve our fundraising totals for next year.  Our team has done $838.30 and we still have another $150 to turn in so we will be sitting at $988.30.  That's not too bad since my team goal was $1,000 and it's generally (not always) just me doing the fundraising efforts.  I did like that Sam and Nash got in on the fundraising efforts this year.  Sam raised about $70 and Nash raised about $65 just by going to the teachers and staff at their school and asking if they'd like to donate.  I think it helped that they made it a competition between themselves too :)

Here's to next year!

4th of July

We had quite the busy Fourth of July weekend!  For the first time in quite a long time our dad was home for the holiday!  On the 3rd Sam was to perform at the stadium fireworks at the Romney Stadium.  We usually go to the fireworks at the stadium but we don't usually go up until about 8-8:30.  Sam had to be there at 5:30 and they were dancing right at 8 so we decided to head up when the gates opened at 7.  We took the other kids to Grandpa Scott & Grandma Kris's house and had dinner first and then headed to the stadium at 7.  We managed to get a good parking spot in the stadium without having to pay but I'm not sure it was worth the 45 minute wait to get out of the parking lot afterwards!  It was a good thing we left when we did because she really did dance right at 8!

 She did a great job and it was fun to watch her.  It was a long time for the other kids to be at the stadium though, that's for sure!  I think I prefer going up at 8 pm instead!

On the Fourth we went down and watched the Hyrum parade (despite knowing better).  I will say this year was better than last year because the parade was only about an hr to an hr and a half long rather than two and a half hours long.  The kids got more candy than usual too, so that was nice for them.

After the parade Trav's brother and his family came over to our place for a bit.  The boys decided they were going to call Grandpa Scott and Grandma Kris and ask if we could take the jet ski's out to Benson to play.  So, a few hours later we ended up out at Benson and stayed there until dark.  The kids had a great time.  Nash got up on his feet on the little jet ski for the first time too.

We even managed to not get too sunburned!

Mom's Allergy Test

So I had my allergy test scheduled for July 9th.  I finished all the steroid that Lindsey gave me about 5-6 days prior to my appt.  I really didn't think anything of it because it wasn't one of the medications that's listed on the paper they give you of medications not to take prior to testing.  Thus the saga begins....

I ended up being 15 minutes late for my appt because I woke up to a nearly flat tire.  Awesome.  I picked up my brother to take him to work and filled my tire up with air at my dad's shop.  I figured I'd just go in and get it looked at after my appt.  Um...no.  After I fill it up I can hear the air coming out of it.  Not awesome.  I dropped my brother off at work and headed straight for Les Schwab.  I was hoping it would be a quick 20 minute fix seeing as it was already 8:30 and my appt was at 9 in North Logan.  Turns out, it was not a quick anything fix.  I didn't leave Les Schwab until about 9.  Luckily it was only a rock that created a hole in my tire and they were able to at least fix it.

I made it almost to the allergy clinic when they called to tell me that if I wasn't there by 9:30 I was going to have to reschedule.  I had called at 8:50 and left a msg with one of the receptionists at the ENT's office (they run the allergy clinic too) about what was going on and she said she'd let them know.  Fortunately for me, I was just down the street at this point.  I finally get there and get in and they get the test started.  I was lucky, they used my forearms for the test rather than my back like they do on the kids.  About 10 minutes after they poke me a nurse comes in to do my controls.  She does the controls up on my right arm and says she'll be back in 10 minutes.  Meanwhile I'm waiting for my arms to start breaking out like mad because my right arm is starting to itch.  After 10 more minutes goes by the nurse comes back in and says, "Well that's weird.  You're reacting to one you aren't suppose to.  Let's do this again."  Thus I get the control shots (3) a second time.  Another 10 minutes goes by and she comes back to....surprise...the same results.  She decides that the 3rd time's the charm and does the controls yet again.  Another 10 minutes goes by and the same result.  She gets another nurse to come in and look at it.  She asks me "Why do you have to be so difficult?!"  I just look at her and said, "Well, you've met my kids, right?"  She laughed and said "Oh yea."  They decide to stick me with a rye and a grass and come back 10 minutes later.  The grass was about the size of a nickel and the rye wasn't too little either.  The poor girls are stumped as to why I"m having the reaction that I am having.  Sonya asks me if I've quit all the meds I"m suppose to and if I ate any of the foods I'm not suppose to.  I tell her yes and no.  She asks if there are any other meds I've taken like steroids.  I tell her that I finished  my steroids about Thursday or Friday of the week prior (it's Monday).  She looks at me and says, "Oh that is still in your system.  This test isn't valid.  You're going to have to come back and do this all over again!"  Crap.

For this test I had reacted to grass, sagebrush, a little bit to Box Elder and a little bit to Malt.  My grass reaction was very, very large.  Sonya told me she thinks I'm going to be super allergic when I do this test again because the steroid was masking my reaction.  Awesome.

So, I've rescheduled for August 5th.  Here's to hoping that I have a good end result