A Few Crazy Days

THIS.... IS AMERICAN IDOL!
Wow. These past few days have been so busy and tiring... but ever so enjoyable. My sisters and I and a friend all decided to audition for American Idol, beings that they were here in Salt Lake City! Sunday morning we were up at 2:00AM (yeah, you read that right) so that we could be one of the first in line. Whew, talk about nuts.... not the line. Us. I'm tellin' ya. It's amazing how funny the smallest, and truly the dumbest, things can be when you lack sleep. I think the four of us annoyed everyone around us. But the great thing is that we didn't care! Ahhh, the beauty of ignorance. We got our sweet "American Idol" wrist bands and our tickets and were outta there by 7:45am. This was much to our pleasure because we were expecting the ticketing process to take up the entire day. It was great to get home and get a little extra sleep. I was able to rest a little bit on Monday (oh, wait, that was yesterday. Wow. I'm so tired. It feels like yesterday was a week ago) only to get up at 3:00AM (once again, you have read that correctly) to head back up to the Energy Solutions Arena where we sang "Aint No Mountain High Enough" a million times on the way up, only to sing it a million more times as a crowd inside. I've decided I hate that song. I think we screamed our guts out previous to auditioning (what is American Idol thinking??? Don't they know it takes your vocal chords an estimated TWO WEEKS to recover from a scream??? And they expect us to audition after that?!?!). Oh, and we were once again drunk off off an alcoholic beverage... perhaps you've heard of it? It's called "LackOfSleep". This was such a fun experience! We gained some great memories! We didn't make it through, but truly, we were all smiling and laughing afterward anyway! We wanted to do it simply because, well, we wanted to. There was really no expectations, no catiness, and no desire to get upset. We just wanted to have fun. And that it was! I will never forget the fun we had! Nicool, Auriel and the British Boys, Addy being so nice to stalker-boy, "I Unique", and "Yes, First Time Audition". Oh, what fun!

READERS DIGEST VERSION OF MY WEEKEND
It was a fun, and very eventful weekend, to say the least. Travis and Adrienne's neice and nephews were here through the weekend because their mommy was in labor with their adorable little brother Keegan and we had a birthday party for my dad, whom I love deeply. It was nice to get together, have a tailgate barbeque, play some games, and hang out! I love my family so much! I am so blessed with the family I have! None of us are perfect, but that's the fun of it all! Imperfections make life adventurous. It was so great to be together to celebrate our dad. He has truly helped shape us. Of course, he too is human. But he has taught us that life may throw you hardships, but you fight to get through them. Both my parents have taught me this in so many ways. I try to take every opportunity to express my love and appreciation for my parents. I am so blessed.

MY HORRIBLE PIONEER DAY
Speaking of parenting... I had one stressful "Pioneer Day" (a Utah holiday). It started out great! Adrienne and I joined my mom and my little brother, Kolton, for a ward breakfast. It was so much fun to see so many I grew up knowing! I love the 4th Ward! I miss so many of them! We took Mercydez with us. It was so great to let everyone finally meet her! My mom held Mercydez while I ate my breakfast. It wasn't two seconds after I handed off the cute little princess that my mom disappeared. I watched as my mom traveled from table to table, person to person, to show off our cute little baby. It made me so happy to see that so many truly care. As we were getting ready to go I had a feeling to check Mercydez's gastrostomy site... and guess what? IT HAD COME OUT! I was a mess! I called our nurse, who was with another patient and had to call me back later. So, I called as many of my nurse and doctor friends as I could think of! It eventually got to the point where I just had to brave it and stick a catheter into the site. Wow. That was quite a big deal for me. I had received a tiny bit of training before Mercy was discharged from the childrens hospital, but I never had any hands on... and that is how I learn. Anyway, it was to our advantage that I put the catheter in. Our wonderful nurse, Moira, came and put the gastrostomy back in. Well, come a few hours later it fell out AGAIN! I was so mad! We called DME suppliers and hospitals. Apparently no one keeps any of these in stock. I guess we are the only ones who have ever experienced and emergency and needed one right away (my voice is seeping with sarcasm). My family got together to play volleyball and what-not at my in-laws home but I was so angry I just sat on the couch holding in Mercy's gastrostomy while she ate, ready to cry. I was pretty mad, to say the least. By the end of the day, I was ready to call it quits. Things ended up working out though. We got a new gastrostomy on Friday and so far it has been great. Ha! I guess it's just that fact that people don't want to help you on a holiday. Yeah, I'm still a little bitter about it all.

Anyway, I feel as though I've had a very adventurous few days. This remainder of this week isn't going to be any easier. We've got quite a bit going on, so, come Sunday, I'm really going to need my day of rest.