Jack's adventure

Oh my gosh. How did I forget to blog about this.





This is my dad. That thing he's holding is a Fruit by the Foot wrapper. He and my brother in law pulled it from my son's nose in the middle of the night (at least to him). Maybe I should back up a little.

Chuck left for Kansas City one week before I left with the kids. Both kids got really bad colds while he was gone. I mean buckets of boogers everywhere. Jack started smelling really bad. After a couple of days of multiple baths and many many teeth brushings I was out of ideas. I found myself yelling at him every time he got near me. I thought maybe he had some kind of infection. Then one night Hazel was having a hard time breathing I was really freaked out. My dad made a call to our pediatrician who happens to be a buddy of his from high school. He told us Hazel likely had croup and what we should do for it. Then my mom told my dad to ask about Jack. When my Dad mentioned the smell he instantly said, "there's something up his nose." I felt so dumb because chuck had told me the same thing and I didn't believe him. It made perfect sense because a week earlier Jack made an outburst in the car about his nose hurting. But I asked him if there was anything up there and he said, "no." He's been chewing on everything lately! We think he was chewing on part of a fruit by the foot wrapper and snuffed it up his nose. I don't know how he could stand it! Well it was about midnight when we figured this all out. My sister Carlie was over with her husband Jeff. Jeff wanted to get it out (at that point we still didn't know what "it" was.) Poor Jack was awoken by my Dad and Jeff with a flashlight and tweezers. It took 3 attempts to yank it out. I heard the screams from 2 stories up.

It really was one of the worst things I have ever smelled.


It was so long it was going down into his throat. Poor little boy. I don't know why he didn't tell me.

When I checked in him later that night he had a huge grin on his face.

I love Kansas City!

Chuck and I have been living it up here in KC. We're only here for a couple of months and then we probably won't have many opportunities to come back. So we're doing all of our favorite local stuff. Chuck has been working 12 hour days so we're limited mostly to weekends.

Breakfast at waffle house. It took 2 years before I was willing to try this place. It kind of gave me the creeps.


My mom and sister were out here and we were able to go through the new temple's open house. So beautiful.



Chuck is doing his cardiology rotation down at the plaza this month. We've met him down there for dinner and window shopping.


Plaza fountain


Art museum with my nieces and nephews.





Take a close look at Jack.


He really had to go!

Hazel is obsessed with sauces. Weird.


Last Saturday we took the kids to the coolest toy store called Marble Moon Company. They did a demonstration of how to make marbles. Jack loved it.








I fell in love with the vintage tin robots. Is that weird.


The store was filled with vintage toys. It was amazing. We may have grabbed a couple for Jack's upcoming birthday.


So cool.


Oh yeah, we had Easter too.





The kids love it here. The only downside is how much we all miss our family. And.....the bugs. And ......spending twice the time to blow dry my hair.

6 months

Sometimes it feels like no time at all has past. The wounds are so fresh it may as well have happened yesterday. I'll go in the kids room and expect to see her there. Other times it feels like a million years since we were all together. Time feels like time is dragging and surely we must have been grieving for years now. But it's only been 6 months.

I sometimes relive the day over and over in my head. It's torture realizing how many mistakes were made. I've wondered had Chuck been with her that day instead of me, would he have noticed how stupid they were being and insisted they do it right. And then I remember the confirmation we received that this was her time. It has been a gift to know that but has taken all our faith to remind ourselves.

For those who don't know what's going on with us we're now back in Kansas City. We're back in the house where we lived when Lucy and Hazel were born and where they lived until they were almost a year old. It's hard being here but I love it too. I break down a little more often but I know it's healing. We left the house clean except for the girls room. We had to empty out our storage unit and we put everything in their room last time we were here. I picked a blanket out of the hamper in the girls' room. It smelled just like Lucy. I lost it. When I told Chuck what had happened he told me he had done the same thing.

We're here for April and May. Chuck had to do Cardiology and ER rotations here in Kansas City. We're packing up the house and putting all our stuff...who knows where. Then we'll be going back to Utah for a year.(living in Orem with my parents) If everything goes well Chuck should learn in December where he'll be doing a pediatric residency and then he'd start in July of 2013.

Since Lucy passed away I feel like I've heard so many stories of hard things other people are going through and I'm reminded I'm not alone. We are built to overcome hard things. That is why we're here.

This picture was taken a few hours before Lucy passed away. I now wonder what she saw.