Radioactive Vance

For Vance’s final procedure in his cancer treatment he had to undergo a radioactive ablation treatment.  For three weeks leading up to the treatment he had to adhere to a very strict diet to rid his body of iodine.  He couldn’t have anything processed or prepackage.  He couldn’t have anything with salt in it (which is pretty much everything).  But the hardest part is that he couldn’t have dairy or eggs and very little meat.  Once his iodine levels were low enough, he began his radioactive treatment.  The purpose of this treatment is to kill any remaining cancerous thyroid cells that may have spread to other parts of his body.  This treatment literally makes him radioactive, and therefore it is not safe for him to be around other people.  He was pretty much quarantined in our house for 10 days.  Vance arranged it so he could work from home and the boys and I went to Utah to spend time with the Gardners. 

While Vance was lonely and starved for human contact…Austin, Kaleb, and I had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. (although we did miss Vance too)

We went to the mall so the kids could play on the indoor playground (We seriously need something like this in Rexburg).  Austin had fun running around and getting all his energy out.

We took all the cousins to the Lehi Legacy Center to go swimming.  Austin had lots of fun swimming in the kiddie pool with Maggie.

We got to watch Annie play in a basketball tournament.

Kaleb was so funny.  He watched that game so intently.  We would watch the girls run from one end of the court to the other and then clap whenever everyone started clapping.  It was so cute.  He definitely has the athletic spirit in him. 

Austin spent the whole time playing video games on Marc’s I-Pad.  Classic Austin!

My brother Tyler sent the Gardner’s a special package from his mission in Mexico.  He left specific instructions for them to open it when as much of the family as possible.  We all got together with Aunts, Uncle’s, and cousins on Sunday and did the “FHE in a Box” that he sent. 

We had lots of fun in Utah, but we were really excited to come home to Vance.  We missed him so much!

Austin’s Preschool

In January, Austin started going to the preschool up at BYU-Idaho.  He has had a lot of fun playing with all the kids and learning new things.  Although he still cries nearly every time I leave, he always comes home saying, “Preschool is sooo fun!”

He has his own little locker for his coat and backpack.  P.S. This is Austin’s new smile.  Don’t ask me why he pulls this face every time I pull out the camera.

There are always lots of fun activities at preschool.  Each day is a different theme.  One day they learned about water, another day they learned about feathers, and another day (this was Austin’s favorite) they learned about cooking. 

Last week Austin’s class went on a field trip to the BYU-Idaho bakery and learned about what Bakers do.  I got to tag along and take pictures.

I think I found it more interesting than most of the kids did.  It was really cool to see all the industrial-size machinery.  We watched the bakers make bread, donuts, and cakes.  Pretty cool.

After the tour we got to eat cookies and milk out in the dining area. 

Then we took a class picture.  Austin really did have a good time…he just really hates group pictures. 

Austin’s First Picture

A couple of weeks ago Austin was drawing pictures in the office.  It’s one of his favorite things to do lately.  Usually his pictures are a bunch of random scribbles.  This time he came out and showed us this…

Vance looked at me and said, “Did you help him?” I certainly didn’t help him.  We were amazed that he drew an actual picture.  We asked him what it was and he said, “Mickey Mouse”.  Then we were even more amazed.  We could see Mickey’s black ears.  He had eyes, a nose, arms, legs…everything!  If you look close you can even see a tail.  We were so excited and thought we should document Austin’s first official picture.  I think we have an artist in the making!

Home Owner Drama

One Sunday Morning we woke up to this…

Soaking wet carpet in our basement!  The carpet was wet at the bottom of the stairs, in our storage room, in Austin’s room and in our guest bedroom.  We were panicked!  We called Vance’s dad over and he and Vance found the problem.

The culprit was this…

The sump pump was not working.  (Vance and I had no idea what a sump pump was prior to this). Every time we flushed the toilet or ran any water in the basement…it seeped into the carpet. Once we knew what the problem was we were much more at ease.  Since it was Sunday, we decided to wait to have a plumber come and fix it.  We dried out the carpet and didn’t use any water downstairs.  We thought we were good. 

Well, we woke up a few mornings later and it was flooded again.  We couldn’t figure out what could have happened.  Then we realized that our water softened had done it cleansing process in the middle of the night.  Woops!.  Now it was flooded again, but worse.

We were so worried about how we were going to pay to have the carpet replaced.  We checked our Home Owners Insurance manual and it said they do not cover any damage caused by sump pump failure.  BUMMER!!! I was talking to my dad one day on the phone and told him that the insurance wasn’t going to cover it.  He asked if we had talked to an agent.  I told him what it said in the manual and he said to check with an actual agent because sometimes the manuals aren’t very accurate.  I am so grateful for his advice.  I called the agent and he said it is covered.  We took a few pictures, got an estimate on what it would cost to replace the carpet, and the insurance sent us a check for $5,000. 

So now our basement looks like this…

The insurance money was enough to replace the carpet in the entire basement, not just the rooms that got wet.  Plus we had a little extra.  So what did we do with the extra?  We painted…well, I painted and Vance helped.  We also had a little extra to complete a few “pet” projects, like painting our bookshelves. Oh yeah, most of our extra cash from the insurance went towards some doctor bills.

So what started out to be a disaster for us new little home owners, turned out to be a huge blessing.  We love our new basement with the new soft carpet and the freshly painted walls.  Here’s to good insurance!