Happy Thanksgiving!

As I made food preparations this holiday I had time to think about my blessings. I am thankful for many things, especially my family. I am grateful for Johannah's helpful hands in the kitchen, for Jacob's drive to put up holiday lights, for Kate's never ending energy and Scott's helpful clean up of the kitchen. And those thankful things were just for one day. I have many other reasons to give thanks continually. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that loves and protects my children. I am thankful for the ability to most of the time to see challenges as blessings. I am grateful for the opportunities and blessings that come into my life regularly. I try to keep my eyes open and see the blessings around me. I am surrounded by my family who continually make me stretch to see beyond what I think I know. Most of all I am grateful for my savior who saved me with his own blood.

Nathan and some of his Struggles

I realize I have left out a post about Nathan. This past semester has been very difficult for him. He started the semester and the same week was diagnosed with strep. He was on antibiotics for a week. About a week later he was sick again. We returned back to the doctor and Nathan was again diagnosed with strep. This time a longer strep test was taken to determine the strep strain. Nathan was again placed on antibiotics for 2 weeks. At this point Nate dropped some classes and became a part time student. He got better then about a week after he got off the antibiotics he was sick again. We returned to the doctor. He was tested for the flu in addition to strep. He had strep again. This was Monday. He was given another kind of antibiotic. By Wednesday Nathan was worse, as if the antibiotic didn't help at all. By this time Nate was staying at home. I took Nate to the doctor on Friday. Nate was given a shot of a strong antibiotic, they took blood for testing and he threw up in the office. Poor guy was so sick. The doctor asked that Nate schedule to have his tonsils out. I made an appointment for the following Tuesday with the Ears, Nose & Throat specialist. I insisted that Nate be scheduled right away for surgery. They took him on Thursday. The surgery went well. We came home Nate's friends brought food. Everything was going great. Nate got a call from his doctor and was told that the lab work came back and he has Mono. Poor guy! On Thursday, the day of the surgery, I noticed that I began breaking out in a rash. By Friday night my rash had spread and was worse. I was taking Bendryl to sleep. On Saturday I went to urgent care to find out what it was. I asked them to take a blood test because my son was just diagnosed with Mono. The quick test came back that I have not had Mono in the last 2 weeks. My rash was a virus. They gave me meds to help. Saturday night, Sunday morning Nate began to bleed bright red. We finally called the ENT doctor at about 5:30am. We were instructed to have Nate gargle with salted ice water for 20 minutes. The bleeding stopped. Early Monday morning about 1:30am Nate started bleeding again. He gargled and waited until closer to morning then we called the doctor again. We went to the doctor's office and Nate was given a big shot in the mouth and the doctor cauterized the bleeding. All was well until that night. Monday Nate began bleeding a lot with clots coming out. He tried to gargle the bleeding continued. I called the doctor at about 9:30pm. We ended up going to the hospital ER. The doctor met us there and Nate was preped for surgery. After surgery the doctor said that Nate was bleeding from the side that he had cauterized earlier that morning. He was able to fix it and because it was so late, he told us we could stay until morning. Nate was taken to the 6th floor and he was in so much pain he could not sleep. So we talked for all hours of the night. About 7:30am we left for home. It was now Tuesday and I had to teach in a few hours. Boy was I tired! Everything went well until Wednesday evening. Nate began to bleed again. He gargled with ice water and it slowed or stopped. The bleeding came and went until Friday. In the mean time my blood test results came back to say that I have had Mono but do not currently have it. Who knows maybe I gave it to Nate. Friday I called the doctor again and asked to be seen. Nate was so mad, he did not want to return to the doctor again. We were in the office for about an hour. The doctor removed the blood clots and cauterized the bleeding areas then waited 15 mins and removed the clots and cauterized again. The doctor ordered a clotting factor blood test. He said that in 20 years he has had only 2 patients bleed more than once and both ended up having a clotting factor problem. We took the test. The results came back normal. The end result was that Mono was causing a difficult recovery for Nathan. Monday we had an appointment to follow up at the doctors office. All was well. At this point Nate had missed so much school we asked for a medical note so that Nate could withdraw from school. He had not been to classes for weeks. That was about 2-3 weeks ago. I feel like I am still recovering. Nathan, however is doing better and getting lots of rest.

ICAPGen Conference

This past weekend was the ICAPGen Conference that we have been planning for the last year. The theme was "Becoming An Excellent Genealogist" and was held at the BYU Wilkinson Center. We offered 50 classes in 5 different tracks. The attendance was just at 170. The conference was a lot of work but very rewarding.

ICAPGen stands for the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists. This is a non profit organization which offers credientials after rigorious testing in a geographic area of choice. I am accreditated in U.S. Midwest. I am working towards another credential in U.S. Mid Atlantic. I hope to be ready to submit my application in January or Feburary of next year. I am also working towards a Spanish credential, but not quite ready with my project yet.

Josh went to Sadies this weekend too. This is a girls choice dance and he has been excited about it for a while.