Sick boy Joseph

Joseph hasn't slept very well tonight. He has woken up a couple of times. The first time he said he was scared and that he wanted a drink. The second time he woke up, he was crying in bed, so I got up again and this time he felt very warm. He has a temp of 101.6 right now. I brought him out of the room and he is sleeping on some blankets on the floor in the living room. He is a little loopy, maybe because of the medicine, and is laughing about a movie that he saw, "Aliens in the Attic." He is mentioning the part where one of the boys calls an alien a "fruitcake." He just laughed and looked at me and said he is having a fruitcake dream.

We watched part of it with Joe the other night and there is a scene where 2 aliens are watching part of the "Mask of Zorro." One alien comments that first they were fighting and then their lips were hugging. Joseph's comment to this, as he laughed, "He said their lips are hugging. They are such the aliens!"

I hope he falls asleep soon. I am feeling jittery and nauseated because I am so tired. He is talking about throwing up now and how if he swallows (as he demonstrates) it goes back in.

Sick boy Joe

Joe has been sick ALL day. He woke up vomiting and with a fever of 104 before 6 this morning. Even with tylenol, his temperature hovered around 103 or 104. Poor guy was burning hot to the touch but because of his fever, he was freezing. His temperature finally went down this evening. I have kept the boys away from him all day and am having Joseph sleep upstairs with grandma and grandpa tonight. Samuel took a late nap, but he is up there also. I just hope and pray that no one else gets whatever he has. I am going to sleep on the couch as a precaution. Let's just hope we all don't get sick.

On a side note, I interviewed at UVU today. If I get it, we can help Joe get back to school.

Father's day (I couldn't get the pic to not be upside down)

Joseph was excited to give his daddy this "tie" for Father's day. He drew a boat and a flower. Joe said the primary kids walked into priesthood to look for their dads and his eyes lit up when he saw Joe there and he could give it to his dad. He was also very excited to give Joe his present. It is more for Joseph than for Joe because Joseph loves to watch his daddy play video games. We got him Super Mario Galaxy 2. We also got him a huge bag of BBQ chips.

Joseph called great grandpa and the conversation went something like this (on Joseph's end): "Is this my great-grandpa? Good."
"Happy father's day. We got daddy super mario galaxy 2."

Babysitting

We have been helping out some friends with their little girl. As you can see from the pictures, she is a happy baby. She may not nap well, but she is happy nonetheless (for the most part).


Samuel ate at the table like a big boy. Unlike a big boy, he dropped most of his food on the floor. He enjoyed the experience as Eliza ate cheese in his seat.


What can she say...she has attitude! Everytime I think of her name, I think of a country song called "Little Liza Jane." I don't know the words just that line. Anyways...Joseph started to crawl on the floor after Eliza. Samuel saw him doing it and decided to crawl after them too. It made me smile. :)

Last week

Last week I took the kids to the Children's Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. It was a fun outing. We ate outside and barely missed getting rained on. I was surprised because Joseph normally doesn't like to get wet. Earlier he had me roll up his shorts, but by the end of the day, he was splashing around and didn't care that he got wet.


Joe had fun getting Samuel ready for bed, as you can tell from the pictures. Samuel would try and suck in his gut to pull the pants down.


Last week we hung out with our friend Brittney and her kids. Joseph and Bryan sword fought. It is fun to watch Joseph play with other kids.


We went and played in the water, or at least I tried to have my boys play in the water. Samuel's shorts are obviously too big, but he enjoyed splashing on the edges of water. Joseph had fun running around throwing balls at other kids. He didn't get in the water at all.

Samuel not knowing how to interact with Ariana. He is a funny kid. He can be mellow at times but tempermental at others.

Mental images

Yesterday Joseph and I helped Amy and Michael move into Heritage Halls. I don't think that I will ever forget Joseph helping us move things. He carried in her teddy bear and I loved watching his little profile as he carried in her calendar. He was helping out and trying to tell her where things should be placed to organize. He is so much fun and I just can't believe that he is going to be 5 this year.

Yesterday, I also watched Samuel in our kitchen. He was opening and closing cupboards, and at one point, he looked over at me and gave me a close-mouthed grin that looked like the total mischief maker that he is at times. I didn't have my camera, but my mind has it stamped there for the moment. I hope I don't forget how cute he is.

Tonight we went over to hang out with some friends. They barbequed and then we just ate and talked. We also went outside and played a little bit of soccer. It was fun. Joseph played goalie. He was so excited and exclaimed over and over again that he learned how to do it and would then fake a dive. He is starting to pay attention to the World Cup and says that he wants the United States to win. It is great to finally have someone close by that we can hang out with.

Babysitting

We are helping out some friends by babysitting Eliza, their daughter. Joseph had fun with her and Samuel was napping when she arrived. He woke up from his nap a little early and was upset that I was carrying another baby. He wouldn't let me out of his sight and whined/cried while I held her. She was tired and wanted to nap. I finally let Samuel go upstairs so he could play with the kids. I was able to get her to sleep for an hour. She is a cute little girl. She managed to pull out some yarn from one of our quilts and started to chew on it.

Cuties

Joseph (rubbing his eyes with his fists): "If you rub your eyes like this, it takes the sleep away."
Joseph: "Daddy said just a minute so it will be a little bit of time. When you say just a minute (to mommy), it takes a long time."
Joseph: "When I was a kid..." He uses this one often. It makes me smile because he still is a kid, and a young one at that.

Samuel (while waiting for food): "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM."
Samuel (when he sees his cookie, pursing his little lips): "Oooooh."
Samuel likes to help me put lotion on my legs. If he sees me squirting lotion on my hands or arms, he comes over to my legs to rub the lotion in. He thinks it is fun. Also, he has started to stomp in place and thinks it is funny if anyone else mimics his actions.

What?

I was bored and decided to google myself to see what came up. I was curious to see if I had a googleganger (I do). I searched Tina Rankin first and then decided to google Ernestina Rankin. I found out some work that I had done back in 2000 and 2001 was finally published. Who knew? I sure didn't. I was excited and felt somehow more accomplished.

Domest Anim Endocrinol. 2008 Aug;35(2):217-30. Epub 2008 Jun 26.

Leukemia inhibitory factor protein and receptors are expressed in the bovine adrenal cortex and increase cortisol and decrease adrenal androgen release.

Woods AM, McIlmoil CJ, Rankin EN, Packer AA, Stevens JC, Macievic JA, Brown AB, Porter JP, Judd AM.

Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA.

Home free

We finally closed on our house!! Yay!!!! I am so happy that we are done with it. My brothers bought it together as an investment and are currently renting it to other single guys. They live there and reduce the cost of their mortgage by renting. It worked out nicely for everyone. We got them a one year home warranty. Now we are looking to buy another house...yeah, I know. This other house is also a fixer upper.

A new nephew (Yay!!!)

Welcome Christopher Austin to the Rankin clan. Born June 4, 2010 at 8 pounds 13 ounces and he wasn't even full term. We are excited to meet you!!

The Nebo Loop

A couple of pics from our drive.



Earlier today, I wanted to take the boys to a family carnival at the Riverwoods. We went and it was a letdown. It was not very good. There were a couple of bounce houses and they had a few free things, but we left after only a few minutes. Joe wanted to make it up to us. We dropped him off at home and I took the boys to the mall. After we got home, Joe asked if we wanted to drive the Nebo Loop. We had gone one other time, but it was foggy so we ended up turning around.

The boys were "very excited" to be sitting in the car. Samuel napped for half of the trip and Joseph almost fell asleep. It was a very pretty drive.

The Utah Lake overlook. Daddy and Joseph are walking further down to see if they could see any wildlife. No luck. On our trip, we saw a deer, a squirrel, some birds and a horse. Exciting.

Daddy taking the dirt out of Joseph's sandal. Samuel woke up for this portion of our trip. He was angry when we put him back in the car.

Samuel walking towards the car, but not wanting to get in the car. He was tired of sitting and wanted to walk around. Joseph did get him to say "woof" today (on a tangent).

We passed a sign that read "Road closed due to snow." It was almost 90 out today, so we figured it was wrong and that we could make it. We had seen other cars driving in the opposite direction than our car. Of course they were coming from Nephi, where we were heading to. For part of the drive, there was only one lane that wasn't covered in snow or that wasn't littered with rocks, and that was usually the lane for the oncoming traffic. We made it past some snowy roads and then we hit this. It curved all the way around and we couldn't see an end to the snow. The temperature was in the mid 50's by this point. We did hit the summit at 9345 ft. We had to turn around. Of course, we then saw cars coming the way we had come from, but we couldn't stop to let them know that they wouldn't make it around the bend either. Hence the cars we had seen traveling in the opposite direction from us.

Instead, we saw a "road" that would take us to Santaquin. We decided that would be faster than going back through Payson. We drove on the dirt road for a while and then it finally was paved. Joe and I were excited because we were almost out of the canyon after having to turn back once. Joe jokingly said, "I will be upset if this road is closed too." Lo and behold, we hit this obstacle. There was not getting through it. There was a bulldozer and people trying to clear the debris and snow. We had to turn back again and leave the way we came.

Both detours cost us an hour of time. That and 2 fidgety boys and a mommy that needed to go to the bathroom, as well as everyone wanting to eat. It was a fun adventure, but we won't be attempting to drive the loop until later in the summer. :)

Babysitting the kids

Today was quite the event filled day. I started babysitting Robert, Kayla and Destiny at around 8 this morning. We waited for Kayla to get her cast off. I cooked some breakfast and then I started to get everything ready to go to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. The kids have only been a few times. We packed our lunches in bags that the kids decorated and then we got ready to go. The pictures are a little out of order, but here are some of our day.


Kayla on a horseback ride at Farm Country. We spent about an hour at Farm Country. We just missed seeing a chick hatch. There was another trying to pop out of its shell, but in the hour we were there, it still hadn't succeeded.


Here is Samuel reaching out to touch the brachiosaurus. I stopped him right before he got there. One minute he is walking among the legs and the next thing I notice is him getting a huge grin on his face and then making a run for the dinosaur.


The kids and Joseph running away from the T-rex that was chasing them from the museum.


I guess a kid threw something at the peacocks and he got protective and started to ruffle his feathers to intimidate. It wasn't anyone that I was with, but the people taking pics when we got there had a boy that was at fault.


Joseph hopped on the bandwagon, or in this case, on the horse after seeing that Robert, Kayla and Destiny wanted to ride them. He was just as excited as they were. It was nice because there was no line for the ride.


Joseph was yelling at me in this picture to "Take a picture of me on a horse." He was on a pony and was very happy about it. He decided next time we go to Farm Country, he is riding the pony again.


Today we tried to find some of the gnomes that are hidden throughout the museum displays. Apparently there are 7 painted gnomes and 7 gnome figurines. We found 5 of the 7 painted gnomes, but only 1 figurine. Next time we will find more.


Joseph has been to the museum lots, but he has never played with the map showing where dinosaur skeletons were found. He spent a lot of time pointing them out.


Joseph built a "Robertodon" dinosaur. Samuel ran around helping wherever he could.


Joseph and Samuel on the computers. Joseph enjoyed playing games. It was really nice today. There weren't that many people crowding everything and we were able to take our time and peruse as we pleased.


Samuel exploring the nooks and crannies of the displays. He is so cute. :)

It was a good day. The kids were great and Joseph had fun with them. Samuel also had a good time. We were even able to meet up with Esteban. We went to Maggie Moo's to get ice cream. It was good, but more expensive than I would have thought. Thanks Esteban for treating us to treats! Good luck on your report.

Other Samuel words

"nigh nigh"
"bird"
"wha"
"wow"