Jake Turns 14!!!

Remember when I had baby Jacob a couple of years ago? Well, it turns out he's 14. What the heck? Didn't I just graduate from high school?

We gave Jake the option of having a birthday party or a shopping spree to celebrate. He chose the shopping spree. He's into looking good now. Honestly though, I was thrilled not to have a party! No house to clean, no invitations to deliver and no goodies to make - YES! Gone are the days of the elaborate, themed birthday parties of his youth.

We enjoyed a nice dinner out as a family. We ate at Biaggi's...again. The waiters are starting to recognize us there.

While waiting for our meal, Emma drew a lovely birthday cake for her brother. He said it was delicious.

After a full evening of shopping, we came home to eat the real deal. Jake's favorite? Spice cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum.

We love you birthday boy!

Halloween 2011

The weather was touch and go, but our Halloween ended up being GREAT! The sun powered through the clouds and dried up the day's drizzles. The kids got to trick or treat after all.

Have you met Emma's bestie Emily? These two are inseperable lately. They've only been planning their Halloween costumes for months. After much shopping and deliberation, they decided to go with an Alice and Wonderland theme. Emma was Alice, and Emily was the Mad Hatter (though her costume wasn't on yet in this picture).

Before the hunt for candy could commence, the girls had to carve pumpkins. They carefully researched their designs on Google and went to work right after school.  Our house smelled like pumpkin flesh the rest of the day.

The girls felt their haul would be better if they did their trick or treating in Emily's neighborhood, so they ditched us after awhile. It was hard to let them go off on their own, unaccompanied. We made Emma text us every 15 minutes while they were out.

Alice and her soon-to-be Mad Hatter

Some of Em's friend thought she looked more like Gangsta Dorothy - whatever!

Work it Girl!

We had a handful of trick or treaters. With our 'hood being a new development, we didn't get a lot of traffic. Needless to say, we were very generous with the neighbor kids in the candy department. I didn't want that big bucket of candy sitting around our house at the end of the night!

Shel-Bee!

Jake and his posse went out as well, though their costumes left somthing to be desired. Jake wore his Sunday suit and claimed he was James Bond. His friend Jeet went as a thief/terrorist, hence the face mask. Jin was some sort of Ninja or something.

Look out Perrysburg!

With the kids out on their own, and our neighborhood empty of trick or treaters, Rick and I went to dinner at Biaggi's Italian. Nothing says Happy Halloween like focaccia bread...

Rick couldn't resist putting out the fog machine. Oooooooooh!

How was your Halloween night?

Papa and Lala's Fall Visit

Bonnie and Co. left us October 11th and I was sad! It took me a few days to get over it. I had just enough time to wash laundry and shop for groceries before my parents arrived on the 15th - yay! That took the sting out of missing my sister.

I have to admit, we didn't do much that was extra special for Papa and Lala's visit. Jake and Emma's school schedule prevented that! We just made my folks part of our every day, busy lives. They accompanied us to church and watched Jake pass the Sacrament, Rick teach Gospel Doctrine class, and me work with the Young Women. They patiently listened to the kids practice their instruments and helped with homework. Lala and Emma baked cookies and knitted hats. The guys played Rock Band and talked football. I did everyone a favor by not cooking (we ate out A LOT)!

I loved having Rick home all week. We four grown-ups would have our fun while the kids were at school, then run the kids to practice, clubs, and activities in the evening. It was a full, but typical week for our Saunders family made special by the addition of Papa and Lala. We hope they enjoyed true fall weather and time away from their own hectic lives! They are certainly missed!

Watching Michael Lenahan (our piano teacher) in his Toledo Youth Orchestra Concert.

In the beautiful Paristyle at the Toledo Art Museum.

Reception after Jacob's 8th Grade Strings "Salute to Seniors" Concert.

On a nature walk at Wildwood Metropark

Under the Gazebo in the Stranahan Gardens

Papa in his Dapper Dan hat.

Enjoying our Hibachi Dinner at Nagoya.

Stayin' Alive

So I'm not a frequent blogger but today was an experience. As part of my residency, I work with Life Flight. There is a 3 person crew comprosed of the Pilot, a Flight Nurse and the Flight Physician. We transport critical patients from one hospital to another, or from accident scenes to a trauma center. It's a lot of fun (not necessarily for the patients, though). It is pretty cramped quarters. Then, depending on the size of the patient, space gets even tighter.

Well, we got called out to transport a woman having a heart attack. When we arrived at the ER, she was no longer responding. I put a breathing tube in her and we got her ready to transport. When we left, she was on an IV to keep her blood pressure and pulse up as they were both low. As we were loading her into the helecopter her pulse began to drop in spite of the IV. We increased the medication and her pulse improved. About 1-2 minutes into a 15 minute flight, we lost her pulses.

I was sitting in the co-pilot seat with the seat turned around at the patient's head managing her breathing. The flight nurse started CPR but due to the pathent's size and stiff chest, she was not able to generate anough force to do good compressions. So, she took over the ventilations and I did CPR WWE style, with an elbow from the front of the aircraft. I did it for the remainder of the flight. Once we landed, there was another group to help out however, no one was doing CPR, so I climbed on top and did it while the rolled the gurney into the hospital and to the ER. Yes, It was like on TV.

After we got to the ER, the ER folks took over. I was quite winded. If you've done CPR before, you know 2-3 minutes is a long time to do it. I got to do it for about 15-20. Then it got interesting.....

I noticed that I was breathing kind of hard. Then I started feeling a warm buzzing in my ears. I thought, "I should sit down," so I did. But the buzzing got denser. People were commenting that I did not look too good. I just smiled and said, "I'm going down". The next thing I knew, I was waking up with someone holding my feet up and a crowd around me. One of our kind residents apparently supported my head when I went out to keep me from falling out of my chair and becoming a trauma. When I came to, I was saying, "I'm OK," but they weren't convinced. They registered me and plugged me into an IV. My EKG was fine. Just overheated. I recovered and went back to work in about an hour. I actually had to file it as a workman's comp claim.

It was kind of nice to be doted on by the nurses. I received much attention and wellwishes. Everyone was very concerned and I received excellent care. One of the attendings even reminded me that there was an age limit on flyers for this very reason. It's great to be respected by your peers......

By the way, CPR should be approximately 100 beats per minute which is the same beats per minute as a particular BeeGee's song......

Thompson Visit Day 3

Last day, Columbus Day. Can you believe Jake and Em had school? No big deal though. I showed the Thompson kids around the great Burg of Perry while we waited for their favorite people to get out of class. We explored the 577 Foundation and played at Fort Imagination.

She's a punkin'

I picked up the big kids from school so they could keep up with Grace and Tucker at the park. Jake showed his impressionable cousins all kinds of ways not to play on the playground.

Not too cool for a jungle gym.

Bon and I took shelter under the shade of the trees. It was a rare, sunny day - too bright for us pasties!

Yes. They're related.

I don't know that I've ever seen Tucker laugh so much. That Jake sure had his number! They played lots of tag and stuff that boys do.

That's just fun right there!

Even Emma played. I caught her attempting a few tricks on the bars. Things weren't working as they once did...oh well!

"Mom, I need to ge back into gymnastics."

Love those freckles. Love that strawberry blond hair. Love that girl!

After gorging ourselves on a yummy Italian meal at Biaggi's, we drove out to MacQueen's Orchard. We picked dozens and dozens of juicy apples.

Checking for worms?

Every once in awhile we'd have to sample our harvest, just to make sure we were getting the good stuff.

Don't lose a tooth Gracie!

Tuck was good at getting the apples that were low on the trees,

As you can see from Jake's apple cheeks, we had a lot of fun.

He's catching up to his mama!

Sisters or same orthodontist?

She's NOT catching up to her daddy!

Sweet family. Do you have to go home so soon?

I had to keep reminding Jacob to set a good example. Tucker was sure watching him!

2 of the Colyar Clan's 4 grandsons

You can't pick apples without climbing a few trees!

I can see a bit of Bonnie in him.

Jake's almost too big for Dad to give him a piggy back ride these days...

We finished the evening off with some donuts and cider. Since it was mild outside, we tried an apple cider slushy rather than a hot drink. Yummy!

Cute girls!

What a beautiful way to end a perfect weekend!

Thompson Visit Day 2

On Sunday, Bon and I took the kids to church (Rick was working). Grace and Tucker fit right into our little Primary. They knew all the songs so well that they were asked to return and perform for our ward's Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation. If only...

Bon and I got to hang out with the Young Women. What a throw back to the ol' days as we sang "My Nature Is Divine". We felt like we were back in Glendale 1st ward again.

Because of our late night of hilarity, Bon and I were quite sleepy after church. We got to nap while Jake and Em entertained their cousins. Nice!

One of the "perks" of Rick working at the hospital is that he can "treat" us to dinner in the cafeteria. Since I'm a good hostess, I took the fam up to visit Dr. Saunders right about supper time rather than cooking them a nice Sunday dinner. It's called pushing the easy button. Whatever.

Rick worked overnight, so Bon and I had no voice of reason telling us to go to bed at a decent time. We stayed up half the night watching a chick flick and talking. I really miss my sister. And yes, we did pay for our late nightedness the next day.

The kids loved meeting Chloe, though she bugged their allergies. Darn!

Miss Gracie post church.

She fits right into my fall porch vignette, right?

Thompson Visit Day 1

There's a reason you haven't heard from us in awhile. We've been too busy having fun! My sweet sister Bonnie flew across the country with her cute kids in tow to visit us a couple weeks ago. (She loves me). Their stay was all too brief, but we did our best to show them a grand time.

Grace wearing Emma's old Halloween costume singing "Love Story" by Taylor Swift.

Grace and Tucker ooze musical talent, so their playtime involved a lot of performing. We pulled out the fog machine and strobe lights from our Halloween boxes to add a little atmosphere. The smoke alarms only went off once. It's fine.

Tucker was solid on the drums

You'd think that Grace would outshine her brother since she's a little older and a girl. Not so. Tucker is quite the musician! That singing voice just might take him places...

He's already got a cool rock star grin, don't you think?

Jake has a fan.

The first full day we had with the Thompsons we spent in Grand Rapids, Ohio. The winding drive along the river showcased the fall color desert dwellers miss. In town we ate at our favorite pizza joint and walked along the canal. Folks were busy preparing for the Apple Butter Festival, so we got a sneak peek at some of the attractions without having to deal with the crowds.

We snuck into this playground, but got kicked out 10 minutes later. Rebels.

I had warned Bon about possible chilly weather, but she must have brought the Phoenix sun with her. The weekend was perfect for playing outside. We wrapped up the afternoon with an ice cream cone at Mr. Freeze. It was was their last weekend of the season, so Bonnie planned her trip perfectly.

Love this girl! She sure spoiled her cousin Gracie. Whether it was baking cupcakes or painting in the fort, Emma had the activities covered.