My Dad

Steven Curtis 1948-2013

Our wonderful husband, father, Papa, and hero passed away on January 5, 2013 after a courageous eight-year battle with cancer.  He valiantly inspired others and proved that this is still a day of miracles.  Steve was born in Salt Lake City on March 16, 1948 to Emerson and Alice Curtis.  He graduated from Highland High School and served an LDS mission to Northern Germany. He married his eternal sweetheart, Janice, in the Salt Lake Temple. He graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in electrical engineering and received a master's degree from Santa Clara University in California.  He spent the majority of his career designing medical imaging equipment and managing research and development departments.  He loved solving mathematical engineering problems and was granted many patents.

Steve was a man of absolute integrity.  He had sound judgment and great wisdom. He possessed charity for all and so appreciated the love and prayers offered for him during his health struggles.  He left a legacy of love, service, humor, and devotion to his family. He endured to the end with steadfast faith in the Savior and a testimony of the gospel. He was without guile and was a true disciple of Christ.

Steve loved gardening and his beautiful flowers were legendary. He passed on his love of camping and hiking in the mountains and national parks to his family. He loved music and sang every chance he had in choirs, quartets, and duets with Jani and was an excellent choir director. He enjoyed traveling and saw much of the world.

He delighted in the scriptures and was continually immersed in them. He had an extensive knowledge of the gospel and lived its principles with exactness. He served faithfully in many callings, but his favorite was teaching, where he constantly bore his testimony of the love, kindness, and mercy of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

He will be deeply missed by his wife Jani and their children and 14 grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, January 9th at 11:00 a.m.

Potty Training Advice

I have a lot to catch up on with this blog, but I haven't felt much like blogging lately (life pretty much stinks right now).

However, I did want to ask, "What is your favorite potty training method?"  I am going to start potty training the Magpie sometime in February (she will not quite be 3 years old yet), so I want some time to read up on good potty books.  When I potty trained Jared I used this book:

I felt like it was moderately successful, but (of course) it still took months for me to not always be stressed about Jared peeing his pants.  This method used a doll that peed to demonstrate what happens when the dolly pees in the potty and what happens when the dolly has an accident (the child will practice running to the toilet lots of times from the site of the accident and from other areas of the house.)  I liked how it focused on giving treats when the child's pants were dry, NOT when the child performed on the potty.  I will probably incorporate elements of this method again, but I am also up for other ideas.  So, let me know what YOU like to use!

Swindled!

Jared came home from Kindergarten the other day and told Alan and me the following story:

"Today my friend Autumn offered me the deal of a lifetime! She said that if I gave her my treat after computer time that she would give me more money than what I have in my piggy bank!"

I said, "So, did you give her your treat?" He said yes.
I said, "And did she give you her money?"
Jared said, "No, but she's going to bring it to me in a few days!" (This is like 2 days before Christmas break.)

I then very carefully explained that Autumn probably wasn' t ever going to remember to bring him the money, but that it was very nice of him to share his treat with her.

Alan then leaned over to me and said, "Jared just had his first experience being swindled!"

It's about time...

Finally, we are happy to announce that we are...

I am always so reluctant to announce my pregnancies on this blog until we know the baby is healthy.  Well, we had our big ultrasound recently, and it looks like things are good and she'll arrive next April.  (Note: The doctor was pretty sure it was a girl, but he was uncertain enough that he said I could have a quick ultrasound at my next appointment to verify the gender.)

I am so incredibly grateful for this baby that will be coming into our lives.  I know so many couples right now who are longing for more children, and that really puts things into perspective for me.  Jared and Maggie will be so cute with her (Jared was hoping for another little sister!  Isn't that cute?)  All that being said, allow me to vent by saying I have been sooooo sick with this pregnancy!  One of my sis-in-laws says that she feels sicker and sicker with each subsequent pregnancy, and that has also been the case with me, although I'm grateful that my morning sickness didn't really start til after we got back from our Arches camping trip in September.  Alan likes to point out "new features" of this pregnancy--like feeling sick in the middle of the night every single night and throwing up at the slightest yucky smell (poopy diapers, diaper pail, kitchen garbage...)  I've also had dreadful headaches (probably from being dehydrated) that just get so bad that I end up throwing up, too.  Here I am, more than halfway through this pregnancy, and just the past few days I FINALLY seem to only be suffering from morning sickness for just about a half hour each morning, rather than on-and-off all day (and all night) long.

Jared said something cute two days ago:
Jared: Mommy, I'm glad I'm a boy and not a girl.
Me: Well, that's good, because you are always going to stay a boy!
Jared: I'm glad I don't have to have that awful feeling of being pregnant.

My poor kids have probably been so tired of me taking forever to get out of bed each morning and having me complain that I feel sick.  Hopefully we are nearing the end of all that...and on to more but different unpleasant symptoms of pregnancy!

Testimony of Jesus

I'm not good about sharing this like I should, but I am a Mormon, or a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I am proud to be a Mormon, and I have a strong testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ.

My brother wrote an awesome testimony about our Savior on his blog that I wanted to share.  Read it here. He's always been better at words than me.  :)

Real Superheroes

Today after church Jared and I had the following conversation:

Jared: Mom, did you know there are two real live superheroes?
Me: There are?
Jared: Do you know who they are?
Me: Who?
Jared: Well, the first one is Jesus and the other one is me!

(Jared is totally into the superhero phase.  He loves The Incredibles and likes to pretend he has super powers of all kinds.)

This conversation reminds me of a something one of my nieces said when she was little: "Magic isn't real except for Jesus and Santa Claus."

Ha ha ha.  I got a good chuckle today.

What to do, what to do?

Jared has a non-contagious, night-time barfing problem.  I have blogged about it in the past, but not recently, and sadly, we have been dealing with it on and off for about three years now.  It's super lame, both for him and for the parents that have to sit up with him in the middle of the night and clean up messes (us!).

Basically what happens is Jared will sometimes wake up and throw up several times but then go back to sleep and be just fine the next day.  He's been medicated now for two different illnesses (acid reflux and some weird illness called cyclic vomiting syndrome--might be related to "abdominal migraines"), but unfortunately the medications aren't foolproof and we still have episodes here and there.  We have also weaned him off medicine several times since we haven't wanted him to be on anything long-term.  He'll be fine for months at a time until it all starts up again.

About a month and a half ago we got Jared in to see a pediatric GI specialist, who unfortunately doesn't know what is wrong with him!  He said only a few of his symptoms sound like acid reflux, and only a few of his symptoms sound like cyclic vomiting syndrome.  He ordered an MRI of the brain for Jared, which we did, and we are glad that it was normal. (Wow, the MRI is another story in itself.  Jared had to be sedated, and its effects lasted most of a whole day.  The whole ordeal was kind of a big stress--not to mention the fact that we are out LOTS of money for it...Sedation is expensive!)  Anyway, I'm not sure what to do now.  He had another barf episode last night and poor Alan had to do all the damage control by himself since I wasn't feeling very well last night.  Jared is still on medicine for cyclic vomiting syndrome, but it increases his appetite a LOT (it is also prescribed in children to stimulate appetite for weight gain), and I'm worried what will happen to him if he stays on it for a long time.

I'm glad that Jared doesn't have a brain tumor or anything horrible that is making him sick, but it is a big puzzle what to do and  this really does interfere with our lives.  It makes me nervous to have overnight babysitters for Jared and to go on vacation anywhere (Jared threw up on our Arches trip in September--luckily NOT one of the nights we were camping in a tent!)  It's not fun to have to have your child always sleep with a "barf bowl" next to his bed. I guess I'm just hoping he'll grow out of it someday????