She's Off!

This morning Eric & I dropped off Kimberlee to attend her first year at Girls Camp in Camp Lomia. She was nervous and we stayed with her until she boarded the bus. She was so excited about going to camp that she packed her suitcase a week ago. I am so excited for her to experience this. It will be good for her to be gone for a week making new friends and learning some new things. Here are some pictures of her getting ready to leave.She said "Mom not while I'm eating!" But I couldn't resist.
Loading up in the car to take her to the church.
Saying goodbye to Daddy.
I think she's sick of me snapping pictures. She found these Capri's that matched her shirt better so she changed them in the car.
The Beehive class president Kellee, Cheri, a new young woman in our ward, and Kim (as all the young women call her). It is weird for Eric and I to hear others call her Kim since we usually call her Kimberlee or Kimber. But that is what she wants her friends to call her.
Getting on the bus. I couldn't take a picture of myself saying goodbye to her. But I did give her hugs and kisses. It's hard sending your children off even when you know it is short term. At least it will make me appreciate her more.

My sweet little Kimberlee typed this on my computer so that I could find it when we got home. She is precious!
The little words on the bottom say:
I sherrr will
miss yall my
fam!!!

I love you too Kimberlee, have a wonderful time at camp!

Boy How We've Changed...

After doing my last post I got to thinking that our family has sure changed over the years. So I thought it would be fun to post pictures of how we've changed over the past 13 years. I can't believe it has been 13 years, but it has and we have the pictures to prove it.

Our engagement pictures were so fun to take, man to have that body again.
The beginning of the Eric Allen Lowe family, established May 26th 1995. I borrowed my Aunt Tanya's wedding gown and my Grandma Bowles made my veil. We look so young!

Kimberlee was 2 weeks old here so we had been married for 1 year. Gotta love those HUGE glasses.I think Kimberlee is about 1 years old here. I was probably prego but I can't remember.
So now we are a family of 4, Derick was born on April 16th 1998.
This is Derick's blessing day pictures. A good friend from our ward made him this cute little blessing outfit.
Still the 4 of us, Derick is 1 and Kimberlee is 3And then there were 5. Zachary was born December 27, 2000. This picture was taken on his blessing day in our backyard. A funny story I'll add, which I can't believe I'm adding goes like this. Take note of that skirt I'm wearing. It's hard to find anything that fits after having a baby and I didn't like to wear my maternity clothes after wearing them for 9 months. So I opted for this elastic waste skirt. The only problem was the elastic in the skirt wasn't as tight as I would have liked it. This particular Sunday I was up on the stand at church with Eric to bear our testimonies, I went first and when I was done Eric got up to take his turn. He whispered in my ear "pull up your skirt" I quickly sat down in a chair up on the stand and to my horror saw my skirt at my knees. Yes my knees. So I tried to squirm in my seat and managed to get my skirt up. I was horrified. Knowing that I had been MOONING the entire bishopric through my whole testimony and had no idea. Then I had to walk down off the stand knowing that people in the audience. Most of them my own family in the front rows of the chapel had also seen me with my skirt down. I can laugh about it now, but back then I wished I could crawl in a hole under the stand. This wins the most embarrassing moment by far!

All 5 of us
Sporting our stripes and our short summer do's (however you spell it)
I know I know, I look like a beached whale, prego with my last babe. Just for the record I felt like a beached whale too! hehe
This family picture was taken at the Robson Elementary Back to School Night. Don't we all look adorable!
I believe Olivia was 1 when we took this picture, I can't believe how fast the kids grow.

We are all dressed up for my Brother James wedding to Cicily Ford. We loved their wedding colors.Black & Tan Fam, Olivia, it really is okay to smile!
A fun Halloween indeed, at least I think so. I was mean this particular year and chose the kids costumes. They weren't very thrilled but I was. Dad as the Scarecrow, Mom as Glinda, Kimberlee as Dorothy, Derick as the Tin Man, Zachary as the Lion, and Olivia as a Munchkin. Halloween of 2007
The Eric Allen Lowe Family- June 2008

Past, Present, Future...

Thanks to my friend Lucy Hansen I thought I'd give this post a try. I guess you can say I tagged myself after reading Lucy's blog. If you feel so inclined I tag you too. If nothing else this is a good memory jog.

30 Years Ago
I was two years old and I'm sure my mother thought I was "terrible"haha. I had chunky legs, white curly hair, and I LOVED my thumb.

20 Years Ago
I was 12 years old it was 1988, because I have a poor memory I had to go to my journals to remember anything back then. Some of my journal excerpts actually crack me up. I wrote about my favorites: "Favorite Relative: My Grandma Bowles because she helps me make clothes and she enjoys having me spend the night over at her house. (I love how I wrote she enjoys having me... that is funny!) Most important is because she's fare about everything. My favorite cousin is Tiffani, I hate it because she lives in another country but I love when she comes to visit ALL summer. Favorite friends: Tami Fuller,I like her because she's always there for me. She's truly my best friend. Shanine Nelson- I like her because she is intelligent and helps me in hard times. Amy Lundgren- is very athletic and she enjoys doing the same things I do. Favorite sports: Basketball is my favorite sport. I love it because you are always running, and you have to be alert. Softball is my next favorite I enjoy running, and hitting, I like to be outside, and enjoy my friends. I enjoy swimming when it's hot. You can learn all kinds of different safetys and techniques. I ENJOY ALL SPORTS (I'm an Athletic Person) I wish my parents would let me go out for wrestling and football. I underlined those 2 times.
This is so funny to me, I wrote this journal all in pencil and it is still legible. I hope it stays that way forever. I typed the above exactly how it is written in my journal, spelling and all. I do remember babysitting alot back in the day. I used to make little coupons and pass them out to the ward members and then they would call me to babysit. Friends and cousins were a huge deal to me, I remember wanting to be with them often.

10 Years Ago
It was 1998 I was married and had two kiddos. I married Eric Lowe on May 26th 1995.


We had Kimberlee: on May 24th 1996, and then Derick: on April 16th 1998.
Life was good. Eric was serving in the as the scoutmaster for our church and I was serving in the young womens. In 1998 we sold our first home( the trailer) moved to Colorado and couldn't find work, moved back to AZ bought a condo. We lived in the condo for 11 months before buying our first "real home". We loved living on Capri and had a fun time serving in the church and playing with our friends and neighbors. It was a wonderful neighborhood and we all enjoyed our time there.

Today
It is 2008, you all know what my life is like these days if you've been following my blog. Eric and I are blessed with 4 children:We are enjoying our larger home. I feel like I can stay cleaner with more places to keep our "junk" The kids are enjoying their school, friends, and church. We are still operating the pest control business. Eric says this is his last summer living here in the valley of the sun. The older we get the harder it is to tolerate the EXTREME HEAT! It really does feel extreme and I feel terrible that he has to work outside in it. This summer we planned things right and Eric has been enjoying staying indoors (mostly) healing from ankle surgery and letting our newly hired technician work outside in the heat. It has been a good thing for him. We purchased season passes to Golfland/ Sunsplash at the beginning of the summer and it has been fun to go in the late afternoons and cool off. The kids stay busy telling me their BORED, and arranging play dates and activities. Kimberlee is loving being in the young womens now and is already packed and anxiously awaiting her girls camp trip July 29th. I am counting down the days until school starts! Only 17 days to go.

Future
This is hard for me because I don't plan ahead very often. Eric and I are planning a trip to Idaho in September. We are excited to visit there and go to the Twin Falls temple open house. I might be bringing home a new member of the family. A little red teacup poodle. I am so excited. We are anxious for Roxy's puppies to be born. Her tummy is growing bigger by the day and I am just glad it's her prego and not me. Been there done that. I do sympathize with her but she is lucky, she only has to carry for 63 days. Life just isn't fair.

Insomnia... You're Outa Here!

I have been struggling with insomnia for a few months now. It is the pits, I would just lay in bed and be wide awake. I wouldn't be able to fall asleep until 2-3 am. When I woke up I felt unrested and groggy. I became a grouchy miserable mess. No one wants to be around a GROUCHY Mom. Yesterday I was at the pharmacy getting a prescription for Eric and came across this stuff: This is the BEST stuff in the whole world. I took the medicine last night and within 40 minutes I was knocked out. I slept all night and when I woke up this morning, I didn't even feel tired. It was before 8:00 and I felt well rested. YEAH for Luna Som. The best parts about it are:

• Contains natural herbs
• Drug Free
• Helped Leah beat Insomnia
• Don't feel groggy or drugged the next morning
  

It can help you too, give it a try if you're having restless nights!

A T-Shirt Quote...

While waiting in line tonight at the store I found myself reading the back of the shirt of the man in front of me. This is what it read: "It's better to die on your feet than to spend a lifetime on your knees. " I wanted so badly to share a bit of my testimony with this man. How much prayer has helped me and my family through out my life. There was a definite language barrier so I opted to just say nothing. What I felt for this man is much sorrow, I'm hoping that since the words were in English that the man wearing the shirt didn't even know what it said. I'm hoping that it was just worn because someone bought it for a good price. I sure would rather die on my knees knowing that I had a relationship with my father in heaven. That I allowed him the privilege of having a relationship with his daughter and that I teach my children to pray always so that they might also learn and develop a special relationship with their Heavenly Father.

A Special Prayer Request!

Zachary will be going into 2nd grade this August. He was particularly excited because he requested a Teacher, her name is Mrs. Bretzing and she happens to be Derick's Teacher at Church. Anyway she stole Zach's heart and so ever since school got out in May, Zach has prayed daily that Mrs. Bretzing would be his Teacher. So cute, he even got as specific once as to petition his Heavenly Father to bless the school principal to give him Mrs. Bretzing. Well today was the big day, the school packets came in the mail and so we opened them one by one. I decided to start with the oldest first. Kimberlee lucked out as her Jr. High packet hasn't come in the mail yet. So we began with Derick, I decided to tease him a bit and it went AWESOME! I opened his letter up and began reading. (of course it was all made up what I read) To the parents of Derick Lowe, because of Derick's behavior this past school year, we have decided to have Derick be in a one on one class with Mrs. Marshall(she is the principal) hehe, I know I'm mean. I so wish I had the episode recorded! Derick got this look of disgust, his jaw about hit the floor and he was utterly surprised. He said WHAT??? I quickly replied, "just teasing son" and he started smiling, Mom, they really do that sometimes. Anyway he wasn't too thrilled with his teacher but I am. I think he's going to have a great year. Then I opened little Zach's packet. Much to our delight he was put in Mrs. Bretzing's class! YEAH were the cheers from everyone in the room. Zachary was grinning from ear to ear. We already knew who Olivia's Teacher was, because she called us a few weeks back. She is thrilled to be in Mrs. Churchman's young learner school class. Tonight when we said a prayer of gratitude to a loving Father in Heaven who truly does hear our prayers. How grateful I am that Zach was able to have this experience where his faith has grown and he now feels the sweet spirit that comes when we are doing his will. YEAH for fun teaching moments.

Motherly Instincts & Campylobacter

At times in my life sometimes I feel like I'm just a worried mother. Your kid gets sick so you try and doctor them up and they don't get better so you take them to the Doctor. Sometimes the Doctor says, "It's just a virsus" I usually hate those words because it means your kid's going to be sick for at least 2 weeks. No mom likes to hear that. Well I had a recent experience with the whole "motherly instinct" issue. Last Tuesday July 1st my oldest daughter Kimberlee started acting sick, you know the ususal laying around the house, telling me her tummy hurt. On Wednesday she slept a lot, I don't think she even got out of bed that day. In the late afternoon I took her temperature and it was 102.3, she began complaining of a worsening tummy ache. So I treated her with motrin and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. The pain was so great the motrin wasn't touching it. On Thursday she woke up screaming from her bed at how bad the pain was. I gave her more motrin, took her temperature and it was still 102 so I called her doctor's office. I told the receptionist her symptoms and she said I needed to take her to the ER. I guess with abdominal pain there isn't much a Dr's office can diagnose. I didn't want to do the ER thing so I put it off. We tried warm compresses, more motrin, and me just rubbing her arms. Still no relief, fever still raging and Kimberlee telling me it felt like somebody was kicking her in the stomach. So I succombed to the fact that we needed to get her some help. When we got there the ER waiting room was empty much to my surprise. We went straight back to the ped unit and they gave her IV fluids and ordered a cat scan. The cat scan showed all of her organs to be normal but they showed her colon to be thickened, and inflamed. They diagnosed her with Colitis and needed me to follow up with her Doctor for more treatment. That night was horrible, she was in so much pain she didn't sleep, she cried out frequently, her fever persisted, and she started having diarrhea. Well the next day was the 4th of July. No offices were open and I didn't even hear a phone number for after hours emergencies. With the diarrhea, she became so dehydrated, so not being able to contact her pediatrician I took her back to the ER, day 2 was much the same, noone was there so we were able to get right in. They started her on IV fluids again and the Dr. ordered an x-ray of her abdomen. He wanted to rule out a blockage from her colitis. He said everything looked good and really wanted a stool speciman. (Lucky girl) Actually lucky lab people who have to take care of it. That would have to rank as one of the nastiest jobs ever! Anyway, the Dr. said the results of the stool would take 3 days or so because they have to let it grow. They told me they would be in contact with me to let me know of the results. So we went home defeated, and still sicker than a dog. She literally had no energy to even speak. Friday night and Saturday morning were much the same as the previous night. MISERABLE for Kim and me, I felt so bad for her. There is nothing worse than watching your kiddos suffer and not being able to do a thing about it. Saturday morning we found blood in her stool which scared me even worse than I was already scared. I called her pediatrician and was so thankful to find they had Saturday appointments. I took her down and the Dr. took one look at her and said here's a script you give this to the ER Dr. and they will admit her. I was so grateful that I could finally get help for my daughter. I knew that whatever her illness was, it was serious and that I couldn't do a thing about it at home. The wait on Saturday morning was 1 hour. We waited patiently and when they called her name it was wonderful. Kimberlee didn't even flinch when she received her IV, it was her 5th poke in 3 days, she was an old pro. They were very fast at getting her to her room and the nurses took such great care of her. I was relieved to know that they could help her manage her pain and Kimberlee was able to rest finally. Her pain was still present but not as severe. The Doctor and the GI Doctor both thought she needed an endoscope to see what the problem was. They were preparing to do that procedure this morning. This would tell us if she had Ulcerative Colitis or Crohns Disease. None would be a good condition to have. Last night I received the greatest call of my life. The pediatrician from the hospital called to tell me the stool results came back and showed high levels of Campylobacter Disease. I was relieved, yes my daughter was still very sick, but we didn't have to worry about this horrible life long illness any longer. This morning Monday July 7th we were discharged from the hospital. I took a 2 hour nap and it was WONDERFUL! So for the record I will give some insight of this disease. Campylobacter is found in the intestines of many wild and domestic animals. It is passed in their feces and is transmitted to humans via contaminated food, water, or person to person when someone comes into contact with fecal matter from an infected person. HAND WASHING is ULTRA important. I have always taught the kids to wash up well after going to the potty and before meals, but I don't recall being assertive about it after they would gather the eggs, 0r handle the animals. Anyway the disease attacks the gastrointestinal tract and causes all the things Kimbers was experiencing. Hence the diagnosis of Colitis. Symptoms appear 1-7 days after ingestion and last roughly 7 days. We had 13 chickens, 8 we raised from little chicks and they are laying eggs now. 5 we acquired from some folks getting rid of them from AJ. One of those 5 died mysteriously on Monday June 30th. The very next day was the day Kim starting feeling sick. So Kimberlee was a text book case of this disease and how quickly it spreads and how powerful it is. The Dr. told me on the phone that we lost a chicken to it, but we aren't going to loose our daughter. I was so grateful that moment for the motherly instincts that I have, for the ability I have to be a mother and to know of each of my children's needs. They are many and sometimes it is overwhelming but I am not alone. I am grateful for blessings and for all the many prayers on behalf of Kimberlee and our family. Just barely getting Eric home from his surgery and being Nurse for him was not easy when this other trial was handed to us. We were able to pull through because of our faith and the faith of many others. We now have 4 big bottles of anti-bacterial hand gel all over our home. The kids use it frequently. The Doctor said there is no need to get rid of the chickens. He said most carry this disease or others and the important thing is to practice good hygiene. Sorry I took NO pictures of our hospital stay. I can think of some great ones that I shoulda coulda woulda have taken. Like the 2nd day of waking up in the hospital, Kim's hair is soooo THICK and has lots of natural curl to it. We hadn't brushed it in a couple of days so by the time she woke up her hair looked like a curly rats nest. hehe! I'll just leave the rest of the missed pictures up to your imaginations!

Battle Wounds

Eric had a reconstructive ankle surgery performed last Thursday June 26th. A Dr. of Podiatry who happens to be in our ward performed the surgery. He was very meticulous and did a fine job sawing off the inner ankle bone on Eric's left foot. Then he drilled a few holes on the bone inside to promote scar tissue so the piece of cartilage in there would seal over so to speak. And then because he hadn't had enough fun with the inside ankle bone he made a nice incision on the outside and found some tendons that were pretty much shot so he tightened those up for him too. All in all Eric did great during the surgery. Coming out of the surgery is always a different story for Eric. He enjoys that deep sleep so much that he would rather stay there. So instead of the surgery being outpatient Eric got to stay in the deluxe suite room 203. He enjoyed his time there recovering and absolutely loved the morphine pump. The nurses at the Mountain Vista Medical Center were top notch. The next afternoon I was able to bring him home. Thanks to Elisa, Nikki, Andie, and Charlayne for taking the kiddos for me. It has been one week today of recovering. I feel like a new mother with the all nighters I'm pulling. I figure it's easier to stay on top of the pain rather than try and play catch up. The drugs didn't seem to work too well so the Dr. prescribed a bit heavier dose today at Eric's checkup. The Dr. removed the splint and ace wraps and this is what we found:This is one doosey of a surgery for sure. I love all the anatomical lines so the Doc knew exactly where to cut and what to watch out for. I also love the Doc's initials on the foot so we knew for sure he was cutting on the correct foot. He also wrote YES on the left foot. Very proficient if I say so myself. Sorry for the blurriness of the pictures, I should have remembered to bring my real camera. But these are better than nothing. Dr. Allen also had his student intern snap some pics during the real deal so as soon as I get those back I will add them on. (If I can stomach looking at them.)