I figure if I get one post in each month I'm doing better than I am in my personal journal. We've had a busy summer, with lots of family reunions, birthday celebrations, day outings, hikes, and school. Yup, I said school. Caleb has started school already, July 26, to be exact, and he is already off track and will go back the day after Labor Day.

We were able to get a swing set for the kids. Wow! What a necessity!! They love the thing. I really hope it gets a lot of use for years to come, because we paid a mint for it. (Thank you, Barak and the tax credit.) Actually, the real thanks goes to my parents for contributing to the swing set fund; they gifted some money to the children for their birthdays this year to go toward the purchase of a play set for our new yard.

Caleb recently had some exciting events in his young life. On Wednesday, August 4, when I picked him up from school, he complained of his stomach hurting. I checked all the normal things (Go to the bathroom, get a snack, a drink, take a Tums, go to the bathroom again) but nothing allieviated his pain. Finally when the pain, which had been in the middle of his chest and abdomen migrated to his right lower side AND he started to throw up, I knew it was going to be bad. I called the neighbors to help Clifton give Caleb a blessing, then we took him to the InstaCare. There they took some samples of urine and blood and found him to be slightly dehydrated and had a higher than normal white blood cell count. They told us to take him directly to Primary Children's Hospital. When we finally got there (I got lost up around the UofU) the ER nurses looked at his admitting papers and said, "It's an appy." So, he spent a few hours in the ER waiting for surgery. He went in around 10 pm and was out an hour later. Meanwhile, I had to go back home to get the girls to bed and help my mom, who came to help me. Then it was back to the hospital to be there when Caleb woke up from surgery. He had no problems and woke up groggy, but feeling better. The surgeon said his appendix was a grade 2 out of 5 grades of severity, so we caught it early. Clifton stayed with Caleb at the hospital and I brought the girls to visit Thursday. He came home that night around dinner time. He cried because he didn't want to leave the hospital and all the special treatment from the nurses and the presents and good food. A few days later, you would never know he just had major surgery. He was up and running around and riding his bike. He has three little scars on his stomach from the laproscopes.

Well, summer is fun. Hope you've had a fun summer!