Hillary's Notes

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Grandma's Birthday Surprise!

Grandma Bolander planned a special surprise for Valerie's 5th birthday.

She took her for her first mani/pedi.

Valerie is always asking Emily to paint her nails, so it was fitting that she got to join in on the fun too.

She loved it.

Thanks Grandma!

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

She has been planning her party for months. I was a little surprised that she was requesting a dinosaur party around Easter. I was tempted to stock up on egg candy then, but I thought she would change her mind as the party got closer. I was wrong. Her friends Emily Call, Leah Rodgers, Maci Pitcher, Abigail Gurerro, Kaylie Wesphal, Mason Carmon, Susie Michaelson, and Kavika Saluona all came to join in the fun.

We made dinosaur fossils, stomped on dino eggs (balloons) and played a few more dinosaur games.

Valerie is so excited to be five and she is ready for kindergarten. She has many friends and loves being with them. There is very little that Valerie is afraid of. I love that she is so confident even if sometimes it worries me. I am so excited to watch her on her new adventures this year.

Friday, July 4, 2014

4th of July Block Party

One thing our street knows how to do is celebrate the 4th of July together. Every year we have a great time at our block party.

The kids decorate their bikes and have a parade.

There is always lots of good food and fun games to keep the kids entertained until firework time.

This year we even had live music. Valerie and her friends burned off a lot of energy dancing to their music.

And the firework show was great. It is so fun to celebrate our independence with our neighbors.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Memorial Day 2014

Most Memorial Days we head out to Tooele. Grandma Bolander and I both have a lot of family there. when I got home and looked through my pictures I had around 30 different headstones we had visited. Here are a few of the highlights.

This is Tamra's Grandfather, Ryan's Great Grandfather. He died very young.

This is My Grandfather. He passed away 4 years ago. He had a great sense of humor and was such a great example to me.

We like to polish up the headstones while we are there and clean up around them. The kids are getting really good at doing it.

This is Grandma Bolander's Aunt. Ryan was really close to her before she passed and we named Emily after her. She was Ryan's Grandma's half sister.

As I said up above Tamra's Grandpa passed away at a young age. After he passed away his wife married Fred Warburton and they had Emily Joyce. When my Grandma Atkin first met Ryan just after we got engaged somehow Ryan's Aunt Joyce came up. My Grandma was very concerned that Ryan was related to Warburtons from Tooele, because we also had Warburton's from Tooele in our line and we had to be related. Once Ryan explained that he himself was not connected through blood then it was ok, and the wedding could go on as planned.
I had not really looked into it further until last month when we visited the Tooele Museum for Joe's school report. It was then that I saw the picture of Emily Atkin Warburton and realized that she was probably the connection. I came home that day and looked her up. Sure enough she was. She is my Great Great Grandfather, Thomas Atkin Jr's Sister.

Emily Atkin is Emily Joyce Warburton's Great Grandmother. I am still not sure what that makes her to me, but it is a little crazy that Emily is related to the person she is named after through both sides of her family. we had not found her grave site before when we visited Tooele, but this time we did. I guess it was meant to be.

This is Ryan's Great Great Great Grandfather. We take a picture here every year, (since we found it) because it is the biggest headstone and it is fun to see the kids by it.

I love remembering our loved ones that have gone before us. It is so fun to see all of these names and talk about them. Happy Memorial Day!

Thursday, May 22, 2014

The Epi-Pen Incident

Last month I did a post about Valerie and the determination she has. I don't know if I mentioned her lack of fear. These two qualities together are quite dangerous. She climbed everything she could as soon as she could when she was a baby and now she loves riding her bike quickly down the hills. From a very young age I have wondered how many times I would be in the emergency room with her, because she is not afraid to jump off the cliff...so to speak.

I am happy to say that we have avoided the emergency room up until this week..........

Monday morning after dance class we ran a few errands and then headed for home. When we got home I told Valerie to go in and change her clothes. I had just planted my flower bed a few days earlier and went to check to see if I needed to water it. Valerie went inside. Not more than three minutes later I heard a scream and crying come from the house. I ran in to see what had happened and I found Valerie in the office with an Epi Pen sticking out of her shin. I tried to pull it out, but it was in there pretty good. She had stuck it right into the bone in front. With a little more umph I was able to get it out. My first thought was to call poison control, but I also knew that the first thing you are always supposed to do when an Epi-Pen is used is to head to the ER. The closest ER to our house is about 30 minutes away. So I decided to get headed there and call poison control on the way. It was then that I realized I had left my cell phone at dance.

So off we went, not knowing exactly what effects this could have on her and hoping they were not bad.

The whole time this was happening questions were running through my head. Why did she get up into the top of the cupboard where the Epi-Pen was stored?? How did she know to pop the back off first before she stuck it in her leg?? WHY???? would she stick a needle in herself????

I figured that the best thing to do on the drive was to not let her fall asleep and keep her talking to make sure she was breathing and coherent. So I started asking her all of my questions. Starting with why did she go right in and get the Epi-Pen? Once she answered the first question it all made a little more sense.

We have been doing the softball routine with Emily for awhile now which means that she packs her bag and leaves it in the office so I can grab it when I come to get her from school everyday. That way she does not have to carry it around with her everywhere at school since it is too big for her locker.

When we returned home form dance Valerie was hungry. She knows that Emily has granola bars in her softball bag for game days when she is gone from 1:00 - 8:00pm and needs a quick snack. When Valerie looked in the bag she did not find the granola bars, but discovered the Epi-Pen. (I had forgotten it was in there, but it is required that Emily has one with her at all times during softball activities.) When the Softball season began Emily and I took out the Practice Epi-Pen (the one they give you without a needle and meds in it so you can teach how to give it) I showed Emily how to do it and then she did it a few times. I can't be sure, but Valerie may have been watching, and she might have even "practiced" herself.

When we got to the Emergency Room Valerie seemed to be doing just fine. We got her checked in and hooked up and every thing looked good. The doctor was surprised that Valerie would have given herself the Epi-pen, so he asked why she did it. she just said, "I don't know." I started explaining to the doctor how she got it and my thoughts on why she did it, and did it correctly. Except for putting it in the wrong part of the leg. Then Valerie interrupted me and said. "Mom, I just followed the pictures on the back." Sure enough there are really good pictures on the back of the pen.

Thankfully everything turned out fine and aside from a headache later that night Valerie did not have any side effects from the Pen. I still question her motives of doing it, and I am a little worried that she was not afraid of the big needle. But I don't think she will try it again. It hurt.