Family Picture May 2022

Family Picture May 2022

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Back to life


You may be wondering, "if Skippy died of poisoning, then how did Fred survive?" Well, Fred got really sick the very next day and we all thought he was going to die too. He just sat there with his eyes closed and didn't respond and was barely breathing. When I picked him up he was stiff. So I left for school telling the kids to put him in a plastic container when he stopped breathing. I felt awful that we had poisoned our little gerbils.
When I got home I expected Fred to be dead, but he was not. He was still breathing and twitching. I left him for another hour or two thinking he would be gone any moment. He did not go. He kept breathing. I had a moment of introspection, remembering how Lillian fought to survive so hard despite her many open heart surgeries and dysfunctional heart, and how we almost gave her up one night but the surgeon asked us to give her one more chance because she was still fighting. I thought, "This gerbil is fighting, there must be something I can do to help him." So I picked up that gerbil and I took him upstairs where it was warmer. Then I had a brilliant inspiration to put him in the oven. (My great grandmother was a preemie and the doctor put a cloth over her and told her father to just let her die. He took her home, put her in a shoe box, and put her in the oven until she responded. And she lived and had a numerous posterity.) I put Fred in a container on a hot pad in a warm oven and I sat by the oven and watched him. His ears started to twitch, and his tail moved. After a few minutes his breathing started regulating. I could tell the little gerbil blood in his veins was circulating. I started trying to give him drops of water. He wouldn't drink but he responded to the water on his face. After 30 minutes of watching him in the oven he started stirring. Another ten minutes or so and he was trying to get out of the container. I knew this would happen if he "came to" and I didn't save him to lose him to the oven burners! I grabbed his little foot and saved him just as he was plunging to a firey death. I was shaking as I held him.
We brought up his cage and put it on the oven door and kept him warm. After an hour or so he started drinking! What a miracle! I felt so happy that this little rodent came back to life. Its now been 24 hours and he seems fully recovered and trying to escape from his cage again. We are going to get him a mate so he can have a posterity.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Bye Bye Skippy

We lost another gerbil today. Strange. We can't figure out what happened this time. I suspect it might have been our fault this time. Savanna made a ladder out of glue and popsicle sticks and we put it in their cage, they chewed it all up and maybe Skippy ingested some glue or something. It was kind of out of the blue again. The kids were much less traumatized, even despite the fact that Skippy looked like he had been knawed on by Fred a little. Ick. We had another funeral, but our camera is broken so no pictures. Now we are considering getting a female and seeing the baby gerbil process.

Seth Snow gave a nice talk today "prior to going on a mission" to Mexico. He leaves for the MTC and Shawana Schauers' baby is due and I'm graduating all within the same week. Crazy for the Schauers family. March is just about over and I'm still alive, so maybe March madness won't do me in after all. I was honored to win a Shumway social justic paper contest this week. I was invited to a lunch with faculty and was awarded $400.00. It was a nice end to a busy week.

Here is a picture from pirate island I thought was cute of Jared:

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

March Madness



We celebrated Karli's birthday on March 7th, she is 21 now!!! We made her breakfast in the morning and then I got a babysitter after school so she could have the afternoon off. We went to pirate island for dinner later and had fun eating pizza and watching her open her treasure chest of presents. ASIDE: Savanna is cute in this picture, I haven't given a Savanna update for a while. She is trying to overcome a bad habit of biting her nails lately. She has a tendency to forget homework assignments on the day they are due, and without mom to remind her she has learned to come home, grab the homework, and take it right back to school. She is a good girl, she has a fun sense of humor, and she loves to listen to music. She even takes the MP3 player to bed to help her fall asleep. She has to have noise coming out of her mouth at all times and seems to like noise to cope with things. Interesting! She has a playlist with 100 songs. She likes to sit in the hot tub more than the other kids, even by herself, and responsibly showers after. She is getting tall too! We love our Savanna.


Weston has been showing a strong interest in basketball lately. I've never thought to put him in basketball but he goes out and dribbles every day and because we have no hoop he throws it at the tree. He wants a basketball for his birthday.


Jared took the kids down to Gunnison to visit Grandpa Neil this weekend while I went up to Salt Lake for a two day ASWB exam prep course. Jared took this picture of him and I think its a pretty good one! The kids had fun swimming, feeding the chickens, and watching movies.





I on the other hand was having fun in downtown Salt Lake studying. My friends Shannon Young and Kim Brimhall went with me. We had 3 hours of class Friday and then we had a nice dinner in an Italian Restaurant and stayed the night in the Marriot. We didn't just play we studied until 10 and woke up at 5 and studied again. Kim and I took advantage of the work out room though. Before class we found a great local bakery and had quiche and crescent rolls with ham and hot chocolate. It was a lot of fun despite the 7 hours of class we had all day Saturday. I am so ready to graduate but I will miss my association with my classmates.


Shannon and Kim



March madness includes:
- Preparing for the national ASWB exam I have to pass in order to be a certified social worker, which is taking many more hours than I have in my week. I am sceduled to take it April 7th.
- 12 credits of classes I study for and attend, 3 credits of which is a group class where I am experiencing being a client and trying to face many of my flaws and receive feedback in attempt to be more self aware.
- 20 draining hours of internship at the prison.
- Alumni liaison for the committee of "March is Social Work month" lecture series which takes place March 17th, arranging speakers and preparing for a large scale service project.
- Making sure reading and homework gets done, kids are fed, and childcare is provided which did get tricky on Monday when the kids were out of school all day for "snow make up day."
- Debriefing with Jared whenever I can and finding time for dates
- Sunday callings, musical number prep, choir practice leading, and Sunday dinner guests
- Soccer practices for Wes and Sav that have already begun
- Trying to rest enough so I don't retain any permanent mental damage

37 days til Graduation

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Fiora's Baptism



Fiora's baptism day started with an unexpected package in the mail. Aunt Robin Schauers surprised Fiora with her very own baptism pillow case! Fiora was delighted with a personal gift in the mail. Thanks Robin!


Aunt Shawna Schauers was so generous and kind as to make Fiora's baptism dress. It turned out beautiful, and Fiora looked like an angel in it. How nice to have a seamstress in the family so we can have family heirloom dresses like this.


We reserved the church so we could invite all the baptism guests to a luncheon before her baptism. We had ham, potatoes, salad, bread, and dessert. It couldn't have happened without everyone pulling together and bringing food, so thanks everyone, and it was delicious!




We had to change venues to attend the baptism in the Stake Center, but it went pretty smoothly I think, no one got lost. Fiora was nervous and excited as we changed into her white baptism clothes. Kayden Nielson, her cousin, was lucky enough to get permission to be baptised at our Stake Center as well, so we could have a family baptism! Kayden was handsome and Fiora was beautiful and it was a very special day.





Bishop Mike Hill with Fiora. Bishop Hill presided and did a great job at making Fiora and Kayden feel special.


Here Fiora is with her new scriptures. Unfortunately, when I was curling Fiora's bangs after the baptism I accidently dropped the curling iron and it hit her head. She had a bad burn on her forehead and I was so sad and worried that it would interfere with her special confirmation afterwards. She was very brave and kept a smile on her face the whole time.






We love you Fiora and are so pleased with your decision to be baptized! Love, Mom and Dad

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Helaman 1-3

I've been gaining a lot of self awareness in the past 2 years, and it hasn't been an easy journey. But it has kept the pride out of my heart. The book of Helaman is hard for me to read because of the pride that keeps entering into the pepole's hearts. If they would just take a good hard look at themselves I wonder if they would be so apt to think so greatly of themselves. I think one reason why the Lord allowed the Lamanites to come to war with them so often is because it was the only way to get them out of their pride and into an eternal perspective.

Some remained steadfast in the faith and kept God in their hearts and minds. Verse 35is how I have felt about my journey of self awareness. Sometimes the heat of the refiner's fire can be unbearable, but it leads to purification.

35Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Gerbil funeral

We have already lost one of our gerbils. Squeaker McSqueaken died Tuesday night, after suffering what appeared to be a broken hip. Squeaker was definitely the alpha male in the pack and had a tendency to do wild acrobatics trying to escape from the cage. He would try to jump a foot in the air when the cover was off to get out, he would jump to the wire mesh cover and climb like a monkey and try to chew his way out. We cannot verify this, but we suspect he was doing just that and fell on his wooden house and broke his left hip one day. Fiora put him in his gerbil ball so she could clean out his cage and he was limping, cold, and could barely open his eyes. Jared held him to warm him up, but it death was imminent, a couple hours later he stopped breathing. The kids were all three crying and upset that evening, it was a sad time.




Squeaker was Fiora's gerbil.


But the next morning they seemed to accept it, and were already talking about getting a replacement. We had a funeral for Squeaker and by then the kids were joking during Jared's eloquent soliloquy. Jared said, "Here lies Squeaker, may he rest in peace" and Savanna quickly added, "more like may he rest in pieces, he broke his bones." And Fiora asked "will a bunch of gerbil trees grow right there where he's planted?" Weston was more realistic and wondered if a bunch of night crawlers would get him. Hopefully his plastic sandwich-meat-container coffin will protect him from the worms.




In Memory of Lillian

In Memory of Lillian
Our Family