Family Journal

My counselor that I have been seeing has given me so many ideas that I have tried and I absolutely love them all.  He suggested that we start a family journal he suggested it before christmas but I forgot totally about it with the holidays and things so I finally got one out and it is so amazing.  He suggested that we set it out where ever we will see it constantly and to treat it like it is gold, he also said to make sure that everyone knows that anyone can write in it and read at anytime.  The kids have really grasped this concept and they are writing things about school, and RaKelle even opened up to me about some things that she never has before it is so awesome.  It has given all of us an opportunity to write stuff that we don't want to talk about and we can answer things on there too.  It will be an amazing thing to read when his time here on earth is over.

Another suggestion was to start some traditions with just the kids and I that we do every week, or month, or as often as needed that we can do when Jaren passes away and that they will look forward to every week, or month.  So we started to have sleepovers in my room RaKelle sleeps in there on Thursday nights since she doesn't have to go to school until later on Fridays, and Ashlyn sleeps in there on Friday nights, and Braxton sleeps in there on Saturday nights.  They love it, they look forward to it every week and they count down the days till they get to do it again, they like that everyone has to go to bed on their night but they get to stay up later with me and watch TV or a movie and then we go to bed. Our neighbor made them Daddy Quilts for Christmas out of Jaren's old clothes and they are so beautiful so they wrap up in them and they use them as covers at "our" sleepover!!  It is so neat to see how excited they get to sleep in my bed. 

We are still waiting on Jaren's wheelchair, and now he has to have a new insulin pump so we are getting all the paperwork done for that now so much fun for me (not), but in the end it will be worth it (I hope) I know he will not be able to learn a new pump so ALL of his care will be on my shoulders except testing his sugars since he can still do that, the new pump that we chose still uses the insets which is the tubing, so that will be nice too even though I have had to do that for awhile now because he forgets how to do it or he does it so different that the catheter gets bent and he doesn't get any insulin at all.  I know I will have to be more attentive to his diabetes but hopefully it won't be a huge adjustment for him because change does not sit with him. 

He has been going to Taylorsville senior center on Tuesdays with his friend Noel and they enjoy it.  My friend picks Jaren up on their way to the center and then I pick them up from the center and take them home it works out so nicely and it gives us some time to get things done without our little shadows following us wondering what we are doing and why we are doing what we are doing. 

Welcome 2012!

I can honestly say I am so glad that 2011 is over!! I would recap what happened but to be honest my days, weeks, months, all mesh together and I can't remember what honestly happened.  I do however know what happened the last couple weeks of December and I want to remember someone very special.  My grandma Adams passed away December 16, 2011 from complications with pnuemonia so the Tuesday before Christmas we had to go to Idaho for a funeral.  This picture was taken in April of 2009 it is 4 generations of the Adams girls.  That was the last time that I saw her, I know its sad but it is so hard to pack up everyone especially Jaren and all of his stuff and go somewhere he gets tired and ornery and so we just didn't have an opportunity to go up.



4 generations of Adams girls

The funeral was very good and it was nice to honor her.  She was a good lady and she was very good at her homemaking skills, to bad I didn't get some of those genes!!  The hardest part about the funeral was watching my grandpa saying good bye to his wife that he loved so much.  And him not knowing who anyone was.  Grandma Adams was 92 and her and my grandpa had been married for 72 1/2 years.  That is a really, really long time.  They were inseperable.  I know that Jaren and I will not have the privilege of being married for that long on this earth but I am so thankful for the knowledge I have that we will be together forever into eternity.  Goodbye Grandma Adams we love you and we will miss you!!

Christmas came and went and we had a really good Christmas.  Christmas eve we have a party at my moms house and my siblings and I rotate families my older brother Mat and his wife Becky and their cute kids had us for Christmas this year and he gave us the best present.  He used his points that he had saved up when he travels and was able to give us a 2 night stay at a hotel in Layton.  The kids reaction when they opened the present was really fun, they were already trying to decide what swimsuits and pajamas they were going to pack.  We went to Layton and stayed at the Townplace Suites and it was so nice and relaxing.  The kids got to go swimming in the pool and Jaren and I even got in the pool with them the first night and it was so fun it was almost like old times Jaren had energy and he was laughing with us and playing around in the pool with us it was so awesome.  We went to Layton Hills mall Friday and got to shop a little bit because we all had gift cards that we got to use.  We then went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks with my brother and his family and it was the cutest show we loved it, then we went to their house for dinner that night and ate together and played Wipeout on the Wii and laughed and just had a great time.  We even got to go to dinner on Thursday night to Red Robin I had a gift card for there from a while ago but it was walking distance from our hotel so we walked to the restaurant and ate.  We did not want to leave it was so nice.  But everything comes to an end I guess.  It was just what we needed somewhere to go that wasn't too far away in case something happened but far enough away that we felt like we got away from our everyday life.  It was very weird though to share a bed with Jaren again I haven't slept next to him for a couple months now and it was "crowded" now that I am used to having my own space when I sleep.  He did really well on our "vacation" and he really enjoyed himself.  So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! Mat and Becky for the awesome weekend we absolutely LOVED it!!!  That was the best way to say goodbye to 2011!! to bad we couldn't leave all the trials that will face us in 2012, but I was able to relax enough to fill my tank and be able to handle whatever awaits us in the coming months.