February 24, 2013

Dear Mama,

Hi, how are you? Me? I've got a few problems, but nothing I can't 
deal with, and I will get to those things shortly.

Last Monday, Josh got out of basketball practice late and he drove 
home. We have him drive Route 66 so he doesn't have to get on the 
Interstate yet. It is 55 mph versus 75 mph, so it took us a little 
longer to get home. We didn't get home until 6:45. It was dark by 
then, but that was good because he needs to get some night driving in. 
Josh says he is awesome at driving, but I beg to differ. He might be 
good driving straight down the road, but he has things he needs to work on.

Tuesday, I started feeling a deep stabbing pain in my back side 
that ended on my right side. Nausea, heart burn, I felt terrible, but 
dealt with it during the day. That night I got out the heating pad to 
sleep because it was hurting pretty badly.
Wednesday was the Relief Society temple trip. I was a bit fearful 
of going thinking I might end up in some ER of a hospital in 
Albuquerque. But I also felt a need to go to the temple, so I was 
grateful when Beck said that she would drive her car. I was in pain all 
day, but managed to deal with it. I was also very upset with the 
McDonald's in Edgewood that decided to drop the Chicken Selects that I 
always order. I need to find something else to eat on those temple 
trips. Got home and went to bed at 7:30, again because of the pain.
I had to set up a check up for Brenna with our local dentist to 
make sure she was healing all right, and it was set for the 25th, but on 

Wednesday while I was gone, she tried to chew on something a little 
harder than pudding and heard and felt a big crunch in her left jaw, and 
then lots of pain. So, I called the dentist for her and he saw her 
right away. He thinks it was either an infection or a cracked tooth. 
He gave her antibiotics and told her to ice it. We also called her 
dental surgeon in Albuquerque, and he wants to see her next week to make 
sure everything is okay. I also called the doctor office about my pain 
and got in to see a nurse practitioner who I really liked. She had me 
go to the hospital for lab work and set up an ultrasound for Friday. 
She had also prescribed some hydrocodone for the pain. Thursday was a 
pretty busy day. Josh even had a basketball game which they lost by one 
point.

Friday morning I had to fast for the ultrasound but took a 
hydrocodone before I started the fast. Man, a half of an hour later it 
hit me like I'd just walked into a wall. I told Jay I was going back to 
bed, and ended up zonked for about three hours--and that was after my 
usual 8 hours of sleep the night before. But when I woke up, I had a 
massive headache. Of course, I felt like that massive headache was also 
in my back and side. Went to the hospital for the ultrasound, and who 
knows what they found. The woman that actually did the ultrasound said 
that she would forward the results to Radiology in Albuquerque who would 
read the ultrasound and write up a report and forward the report to my 
Doctor and she would let me know what was diagnosed from the 
interpretation of those fuzzy gray pictures. Everybody has to get their 
cut, right? So, I sit and wait... Meanwhile, while fasting, the pain 
seemed to have lessened and I connected the fact that if I don't eat, I 
don't feel as much pain or get as nauseated.

Saturday, we got up, had breakfast, cleaned house, and while I 
worked on lunch, Jay and the boys worked outside on making a new wood 
pile in preparation for our garden this year. There is a spot in the 
backyard that has been covered in wood for the last 15 years and we are 
hoping the ground there will be more favorable to growing things. 
Anyway, Josh had another basketball game. It was also their 
homecoming. Josh also woke up with a cold that morning. He was 
dragging pretty badly, so after lunch he took a nap before getting ready 
for his game. We believe he has stretched himself too thin. He doesn't 
eat enough (too tired), nor get enough sleep. He gets up early for 
early morning seminary and then goes off to school, basket ball practice 
or a basketball game, not getting home until late, trying to fit in 
homework, get some sleep and then start all over again. He has decided 
that he is sick of basketball and wants his life back, but I have told 
him that he has only a few weeks left and he committed himself to this 
and needs to see it through. Someday, he might be married, a kid or 
two, going to college and working two jobs to support his family, and he 
will be tired, but he needs to see it through and not quit. Jay wasn't 
too happy about it because he is really worried about Josh, but he 
agreed with me that this will hopefully teach him some responsibility. 
Anyway, Jay and I brought Josh to his game and as soon as the game was 
over, Josh called. He didn't feel up to staying for the homecoming 
dance. He did get to see the coronation while he waited for Jay to come 
and get him. Jay and I went to Clovis after dropping Josh off to his 
game so I could pick up my new glasses. The new ones were worse than 
the last pair, so I decided to go with the last pair and they reimbursed 
me the difference. We also set up an eye exam for Jay which we will pay 
for with our state income tax return. He has already picked out his 
frames. They are $38 and he hopes they will hold his lenses as they 
should be quite thick. The last time he got his eyes examined we lived 
in Portales about 20 years ago. His frames are falling apart, so it is 
about time. We went and had a bit of frozen yogurt before we headed 
home. I felt nauseaus the whole way home.

Today, the pain has not been so bad, but I can still feel it. Caleb 
had a talk in Sacrament meeting, and it was on fulfilling his Duty to 
God. He felt like he wasn't doing too well, so I pulled out his little 
booklet and realized that his goals were way too big, no wonder he felt 
like he was failing, so I helped him set some smaller ones. Then I 
showed him throughout his Deacon section where he was performing well 
and doing a lot of things to fulfill his Duty to God. He felt a lot 
better and wrote a much better talk than originally planned. He just 
needs to practice giving his talk a few times in a mirror to make his 
presentation a little more polished. Danielle and Nathan Searle also 
spoke--off the cuff. They had been assigned talks, and Danielle put the 
paper assignment in the diaper bag. Nate emptied the diaper bag and 
threw it out not knowing what it was, so when they walked in, they 
discovered they were supposed to speak that morning. They spoke anyway, 
and did a really good job. Beck also played this gorgeous piano piece 
for the intermediate hymn time. It was really beautiful, I think you 
would have liked it. Josh stayed home from church and slept. Brenna 
didn't wear her glasses to church and realized that that was not a good 
decision. Sam was supposed to teach his Sunday School lesson (part of 
the new youth program), but got Sunday-itis, and said he felt too sick. 
His teacher let him get away with it. I told her that from now on, he 
would not be too sick. He was fine once he got home. Shayna used to 
get Sunday-itis, but has gotten much better over time. Sam will, too.
We are expecting it to snow. We are supposed to have blizzard 
conditions and get anywhere from 3 to 8 inches of snow. It was supposed 
to start at noon and go until about 5 tomorrow evening. Well, it is 
almost 7pm now and we are still waiting to see some snow. We saw a bit 
of sprinkling rain, but not enough to even make the ground wet, but the 
wind is picking up, so, eventually it may hit us. The kids are hoping 
for a snow day. I wouldn't mind a snow day myself.

I have decided that when Shayna gets home from college after 
graduating, I want her to help me to paint the beams on my dining room 
ceiling and paint vines on them. Nothing too outrageous, but something 
needs to be done to cover up the water damage that has been there for 12 
years. I can do the prep work, but I would like her to do the actual 
art work. I think she will do a great job. That is, if she is not 
packing up to go into the Peace Corps.

Our Relief Society lesson was on Elder Uchtdorf's general 
conference talk on Regrets and Resolutions. It is a great talk and you 
should review it if possible. Well I will close now. I may end up not 
mailing this to you until Tuesday depending on if there is a blizzard or 
not. I hope this letter finds you doing well, at least as well as can 
be expected. I put your name, and Terry's name in the temple when I 
went last. May the Lord bless us all. I love you, your 4th, Lisa