Home in Holladay

Moving Moving Moving was our last few days...however----we are back in our house in Holladay! Dont know for how long and so most of everything will stay boxed, but at least the horrible weekend is over!( now comes the organizing and making the house liveable!)

We had to make a deal with the devil which I will say Jonathan must know how much I love him to do it. ComC@st c@ble company is the most crooked dealing company!!! I have personally filed 2 better business complaints against them. I told Jonathan that UNDER NO circumstances would we give them business when we returned to the house and he agreed. However after dealing with several other options and ordering a non working modem from another local company - Jonathan was getting a bit stressed out. Starting school again today - he needed to be connected to the internet and FAST. He asked me sooooo nicely if he could grab a modem from the devil himself as he HAD to be online that day. Because I love him sooooo much I agreed....but with lots of hesitation :(

Our weekend came to a close with a joint bday party for all Sept birthdays. It was a fun affair and Jessica was kind enough to send photos as our camara is still under a pile of boxes somewhere in the house. Grandma came up from San Diego to spend a few days with us all and it was great to see her.

Dad, and Nancy

Posing with grandma

me and the kids

My sister Jessica and Family

Grandma showing off her gifts

All the birthday folks!!!!

Amber's New Dew - Like/Dislike?

Amber had another bad migraine today so she wasn't able to post this new dew pic, but I thought I'd get it up fast so all her friends could say whether it's a hit, or a miss... =)

head update

After talking with my dad today he made an assumption that since I havent commented about my headaches lately that I must have been doing a bit better.

Oh I wish that were true. :(

Ive stopped taking my last medication, and have been put on cymbalta( havent seen any results yet) have continued physcial therapy, and had an occular nerve block last week. However since last week ive had a headache ( with the exception of one day) everyday. Jonathan seems to think that there is a vast improvement as yesterdays headache was terrible but eventually went away without medication. I dont know....

What I do know, is that having daily or almost daily headaches either requiring long intervals of laying down in the dark with ice packs, or putting vast quantities of drugs in my system is not really living life to its fullest and is incredibily challenging. Because of this, I really am fine with the course of action for our lives, but still wishing I could just get rid of these darn things!

The geat escape... well almost!

I find this to be extremely funny even though I'm sure I'll rue the day that he actually DOES escape his nightly prison and smacks me in the face in my bed at 4:00 in the morning. He's SO CLOSE!!!

gratitude

I read something a little while ago that makes me believe in miracles. We have had some small happiness ourselves this past week.
-Ive gone 5 days without a headache. Ive stopped taking medication that was making me feel sick...my appetite has returned, there is joy again in life ( amazing when you are ill how the outlook can be dim)
-Tristan doesnt have shark teeth, but rather just horrible white things( cankers ?) behind his front teeth
-We had a relaxing weekend that was MUCH needed
-We will be moving( not fun) back to our old house in about a week. This alone has made me ponder on the last 6 months of living with my mother and step father how the time has gone by so quickly. And also reflect on the fact that I will miss them and this time a great deal. All of us were always so busy.... There were few times where we did things but for the most part it was just passing by and perhaps sharing a meal here and there. They watched the kids for us on occasion so we could have a date night once and a while....but more than anything it was giving us the opportunity to have choices in our life. What we started out planning for and where we are now, are polar opposite, but for the first time, I really feel peaceful about the direction. Not that it will be an easy road, but one that is best for us.
-So grateful I have been for Jonathan and his ability to keep going inspite of my ongoing struggles. Tristans ongoing sicknesses....and the life that we have. Because while we love every second, neither he nor I realized how hard it can be. We think all the time about what might have been had we met years prior, but in the end we both realize that we wouldnt change a thing.
-I had a good night with Elijiah last night. Something that usually is rare and far between. He is a moody child, often going from sweet and kind to mean, or grouchy. But last night we wrestled, played, tickled and had lots of cuddling. Its been hard on him with Tristan being SO demanding not only of my time but physically. Tristan doesnt like ANYONE else to sit next to, hug, or be close to me. He screams anytime I pay attention to someone other than him and so Elijiah has felt left out. I make special time to be with just him, and like last night it was great. I miss my one on one time with Elijiah. For most of his first 4 years it was just the two of us.( khory was gone a great deal) and then he had to adjust to Jonathan and a new baby very quickly. Hes done a great job, but I have to remember he needs me too. Last night was fun.
-Im still working on putting together my past years blog book. But I realize that even though Im blogged out...tired of worrying about documenting all the details of our lives and posting pictures, when I see the book, and how it turns out to be the journal of all of us, it continues to motivate me to keep blogging. So last but not least, my thoughts this morning ran its course to the blog...how grateful I am for blogging. It has allowed me to share the good, bad and ugly, but more importantly reflect upon the changes of our family and always be amazed at, and grateful for- the simple things in life.

Nothing but crazy in this house

What a week!

These are the weeks that I wonder if Jonathan and I will truly go mad. Migraine after migraine, and Tristan up with fever for 4 nights in a row, plus he stopped eating after the 2nd day- talk about FUN at the bechtold house! We were initially thinking it was him just teething again, but after he stopped eating, we realized that we might have another bout of thrush. But on the 3rd day I noticed cankers developing in his mouth and he was in terrible pain, so much that day care called and told me he was inconsolable and had to be picked up. Add a sick child to my already drained and sick state, it was a bad combo. Ive been missing a bit of work running around to physical therapy and seeing neurologists this week and the last thing we needed was for Tristan to be really ill. The other night Jonathan and I decided we needed to take him to urgent care and we were told there was a kids care at Mckay Dee hospital. So we packed up and head out. Much to our astonishment when we get there we were told that though they are "urgent care clinic" its an appointment only. So much for that. So another sleepless night and I took him to the doctor the next day. HOLY MOLY! Some clinical name but was told he had some summer virus that was contagious but there was no medication for,( other than swish his mouth with mylanta) but it wasnt thrush it was the cankers. POOR kid. Hes been eating yogurt and thats about it for two days now. Well after the worst migraine attack last night where I literally thought I was going to die, I am feeling better. I dont think I have ever likened a migraine to giving birth before on the pain scale and I did last night. At least when you give birth you know the pain will at some point end. But after 16 hours of pain- horrible crawl out of my skin pain, I didnt think I could stand it anymore I took my medication( I didnt want to as the dr. told me that I am now getting rebounds from the meds I am taking and that I should try and not take anything for 2 weeks. I laughed when he said that, but told him I would try. So I tried....and failed) because within 20 minutes of taking the meds I was pain free. Pure Bliss. Next week I get to have injections in my head---and for once Im excited. To think something is being done and I might have some relief is a miracle.

Jonathan gave me a blessing and I so appreciated it. It gives me strength when I think about what was said. On another note, I think Tristan is doing better, his fever finally broke and while his mouth is still in sad shape, he ate with a vengeance this morning. And that is good news. Today is Friday - and I cant tell you how excited I am to be done with this week!

backpack drive

I can say a few things about my job on this here blog right?? I do like many things about it. One of those things is being a part of a small HR team that makes decisions as to what we do as a company, and how we support the community. Last year we did a backback drive. Now Disney as a whole does this, but doesnt tell us where we have to donate to, thats for us to decide. Being that time of year again we participated in the event and overall had a great time in doing it. Naturally the filling of the packs came to us "girls" but what can you expect of a company 99% of men huh?
I told Katie to turn around otherwise I get a butt shot of her...but she remained turned....sooo what I am to do??!!!
Here we all are doing our best to fill 30 packs as we had to deliver them later that same day...needless to say it was a good time.
After we delivered the backpacks we got a tour of the school ( its a k-3) school primarily serving the Hispanic community and ESL population at night to help them learn English. Its a wonderful outreach school with many needs. While it was a small donation in the grand scheme of things, it still felt good that we as a company and as individuals did something that was meaningful and appreciated.

This is the computer lab/ library. All of the computers were donated by a grant and it incredible to see that these kids get access to top of the line technology as their "east" side students. To much inequality to start out with and these things really help. Anyway it was a fun day ( well several weeks of collecting donations, but a day to get everything together and delivered) and it was well worth the effort.