Music to my Ears

Last night Brady was pointing and grunting at something and I couldn't figure out what he wanted. I started in with my usual list of questions...

Me-Do you want signing time?
B - Brady shakes his head for no
Me - Do you want a drink?
B - Brady shakes his head for no
Me - Show me the sign for what you want
B - Shows me his sign for "signing time"
Me - (exasperated) Brady, TOUCH what you want
B - Waddles over to his bucket of toys and touches the lid
Me - Oh, do you want me to open your bucket?
B - (excitedly) "Yeeeaahhhh. Yeah."

WORDS. THEY WERE WORDS. Clear, perfectly formed words. Words with no consonants, but words nonetheless. Troy and I whipped our heads around and watched each other's jaws hit the floor. "Did that REALLY just happen?" Troy confirmed that it did indeed happen and that I wasn't dreaming or high from my cold medicine. Then Troy made a simple statement that moves me to tears now that I think about it. "Do you realize that we just heard what his voice really sounds like for the first time?" We did. And it was the most beautiful, nasal little boy voice we could have ever imagined.

We tried to shrug it off as a fluke, not wanting to get too excited. Brady has, on occasion, answered "eeeeeees" as "yes" to questions. And then he forgets how to do it for months at a time. But Troy just called me at work to tell me that he got another "Yeah" when he started the car and asked Brady if he wanted to listen to his music.


I couldn't think of a more appropriate time to show this photo of our naked boy who is covered in mustard and appears to be singing along with Daddy. Now please excuse me while I go pick my heart up off the ceiling.

Walking Details

I thought I would share more detail about Brady walking as I know a few other 1p36 parents are reading our blog. As do many other kids with developmental issues, Brady has low muscle tone (hypotonia). However, he has always been more hypotonic in his upper body and abdomen than in his legs. This probably explains why it took him so long to master sitting but then he quickly progressed to walking. Here is an approximate timeline of Brady's gross motor skill milestones.

• 6-8 months - could sit in bumbo (head control) for a minute or two.
• 10-12 months - could sit in bumbo or exersaucer for extended periods. Also started bearing minimal weight on his legs.
• 12 months - rolled from stomach to back, although he didn't do it very often. He was just never much of a roller. He never really rolled from back to stomach. He just HATED his stomach and has never tolerated tummy time until just recently (around 30 months).
• 16 - 18 months - could sit up for very brief periods.
• 18 - 20 months - could officially sit up. However, he had no defensive reflexes (putting hands out to catch himself) and could not get to the sitting position by himself.
• 20 - 24 months - defensive reflexes slowly improved and he could catch himself from tipping over most of the time, however could still not get to sitting on his own.
• 24 months - started crawling on his 2nd birthday. It was slow at first, he would take 2-3 "steps" with his arms, then sit up and rest. He is now also able to get in to the sitting position on his own but continues to roll to his stomach and use his arms to sit up because of his weak belly.
• 27-28 months - started pulling up to standing. Could stand unassisted for brief periods. Could take 2 - 3 steps before falling into our arms. Can walk with his fake walker (see below).
• 29-30 months - can skillfully walk around holding on to furniture. Does not have good defensive reflexes from the standing position.
• Currently (33 months) - Brady is pretty good at walking. His defensive reflexes have improved a ton, meaning that he can often (90% of the time) put his hands down on the ground and stop himself from falling on his head. He doesn't pay attention to where he is walking and will often trip on toys or might trip when moving from one surface to another (tile to carpet, etc.)

We have a very talented Physical Therapist who Brady has seen twice a week for the past year and a half. I wish I could share all the PT details but Troy has taken Brady to most of these appointments. Troy will post the details later but for now here are just a few toys/tools that have helped Brady.

Our PT has always used a swing similar to this one during all of Brady's appointments.

This swing helped Brady's trunk control tremendously. He required a lot of help in the swing initially but now swings and spins wildly in it without losing his balance. We have toyed with the idea of getting one at home because he really craves swinging for sensory input. If you do get one make sure to buy several mats to go underneath. We got some affordable mats at Costco and they were great for Brady to sit and play on when he was still falling over a lot and they saved Troy’s knees while Brady was learning to roll over, sit, and crawl. They allowed us to let him fall and eventually acquire defensive reflexes without hurting himself. This was the hardest part about watching Brady learn to walk. We used to wonder if his reflexes would ever kick in. We used to watch other babies fall when they were learning to walk and could not believe how graceful it was. I will never forget the sound the first time Brady went straight to the tile.

As I mentioned before Brady has better tone in his lower body. In fact we just met with an orthotist who said his achilles are a bit on the tight side. We never used a walker because by the time Brady was coordinated enough to push one he was very close to walking on his own. We did buy this push cart...

It is $24.99 at IKEA. It was the only push toy we could find with a handle tall enough to accommodate a taller/older toddler. Brady would lean his body weight into it and it would shoot out ahead of him (with Brady falling on his face) so we put a 10 pound weight inside to slow it down.

As for ankle support our PT did not feel Brady required DAFOs so we have been using orthopedic insoles along with a well-structured, supportive shoe. I would love to buy him a pair of little Chuck Taylors but they are just fabric with little support so we stick to miniature versions of shoes we might work out in.

I'm not really clear on what timeline is expected for kids with 1p36 deletions with respect to walking. I hesitated to post Brady's timeline because I remember how frustrated I used to get with typical timelines. When I was pregnant I signed up for a weekly email that told me what exactly was happening with the baby and after Brady was born the emails switched to developmental milestone updates. Every single week I would cry when I got that stupid email and realized Brady had missed yet another milestone. Then I would take him to the Dr. and they would tell me he was fine. $%*@! So please don't rely too heavily on our timeline. It is simply our experience to date, and while our kids have so many similarities, they will always be unique.

Learning to Walk

Brady is now taking Keppra and has been seizure free for more than two weeks! We didn't realize the extent that Brady's development was being affected by the seizures until they stopped. Brady's new walking skills had started to regress as his seizures increased. However, in the past two weeks Brady's skills have resumed and he has hit several new milestones. Since I will likely never figure out how to post videos I took some photos of him walking in the park last night.

New this week... getting to standing without pulling up on anything...








It catches me off guard every time Brady takes off on his own towards whatever catches his interest. Our communication with him is currently limited to his signing and pointing, following his eye contact, and a lot of guessing. Walking independently has improved this process as Brady can get to most of the things he wants. Often he will sneak up behind me and growl to scare me. He then leads me by the hand to our brown chair to read books.

The feeling of his hand in mine as we walk side by side is indescribable. This is something I have silently hoped for but have learned not to assume would happen. I stopped wishing for these milestones aloud and instead have tried to accept whatever may or may not come. This approach has lessened the sting when therapist after therapist says "he will never speak." And this approach has made every milestone, no matter how seemingly insignificant, all the more reason to rejoice. As a parent to a child with special needs I have learned there is a fine line between hope and denial. It's a tight rope I continue to learn to walk every day. It is in this way that Brady and I have learned to walk together. He is a stronger force and a more significant teacher than I could ever have imagined before he came into my life. Love you, Bubs.

Date Night

Last night Troy and I went out to dinner WITHOUT BRADY. This was our first date of 2008 and we can't thank the McNaughtons enough. Troy has known them since college and we are so lucky they live in AZ! They are great friends and were, of course, were great with Brady last night. He didn't even notice that Mom & Dad left and went to dinner. Unfortunately they also introduced Troy to Guitar Hero and I am never going to hear the end of it. G.H. is way too hard for me and made my hands hurt! Has this happened to anyone else or am I getting old and arthritic?


We also had great fun on Friday night with Crystal and Chris who have frequent business meetings in Phoenix. We stayed in the same hotel downtown and had breakfast together. Troy adn I watched nearby fireworks from our window and rented movies while Brady slept. Who knew Brady would love hotel life so much? Thanks for the room and the fun, Crystal and Chris!


I dare say we actually did some stuff this weekend, none of which was documented in photos! I'll leave you with this little tidbit in lieu of a photo...


It's going to be a looooong summer!

Growing Pains

This week Troy and I met with our local school district to kick off the monstrous process that will eventually be Brady's Individualized Education Plan (IEP). This IEP will determine where Brady will go to school this fall and the level of services he will be eligible for. Our every day vocabulary is filled with new acronyms which I often forget are foreign to many parents. I suppose I could write a lengthy post defining these abbreviations but today I just wish there was an acronym for how I feel.

On Tuesday Troy and I observed several special ed. pre-school classrooms and were quite shocked by what we saw. The kids looked normal. They sat in chairs around a table eating snacks and chatting while their backpacks were lined up near the classroom door. This setting was in sharp contrast to other groups with which Brady is involved where he might be one of the few children who can walk, who can see, who can eat.

I know pre-school is what Brady needs. I know these classrooms are full of typical students whose purpose is to model appropriate development and behavior for the differently-abled. But will they understand Brady? He can sit in a chair but will fall at any moment. He can eat but will stuff his mouth full and choke if not closely monitored. He can't talk. He will have a freak out of epic proportions and burst the capillaries in his cheeks if someone forces an uncomfortable or unknown activity upon him. How will a new teacher possibly begin to understand the intricacies that are Brady while juggling 10 other children?

I imagine these feelings of fear and concern are not unique. This is likely how all parents feel when they prepare their little ones for that first day of school. Or maybe how parents feel when their children charge out of the house for the first time, alone, with car keys in hand. And quite possibly this is stirring up some of what I felt when I dropped Brady off at daycare on his 42nd day of existence, thinking "how will she feed him? and how will I possibly get through this day?" And then I returned to a happy, full baby and realized that this day was not hard for him. It was only hard for me.

I know Brady needs this. He needs to be around more kids. He needs to not be the center of attention at all times. He will grow and thrive and learn. And I will find a way to manage my fears and let go, just a little bit, of my baby.

Boston or Bust

We belong to a yahoo group consisting of other families or caregivers of children with 1p36 deletions. These parents are amazing, offering support and advice to virtual strangers on a daily basis. This fall the group will hold its second annual conference (we weren't able to attend last year's in Jacksonville) and we all voted on either Cincinnati or Boston for this year's location. Any guesses as to our vote?

If everything comes together as planned this will be a trip of firsts. Neither Troy nor I have have been to Boston and we have never traveled with Brady farther than the 1.5 hour flight from Phoenix to Salt Lake City.

In my perfect world we would take along a helper so Troy and I can attend the meetings without distraction and can sneak off for a Red Sox home game which will conveniently occur during our trip. Also, Brady will be a perfect angel on the lengthy flight which will be paid for by one of the organizations I am learning about which pays for families to attend medical appointments or conferences.

In reality I just hope that we make it there in one piece, that the fall weather will cooperate and that Brady will have a seizure free trip. I will gladly search the couch cushions for funds and juggle/wrestle Brady through each and every meeting. It will be worth it to meet all of the helpful online voices in person that make up our newfound 1p36 family.

p.s. check out our new "How Is Brady Today?" counter. We are currently over four days seizure free!

Home Sweet Home

We're home! We were able to record one seizure, got tons of face time with various neurologists and epileptologists (a new word I learned this week) and have put Brady on a new medication. So far, so good. We are almost 48 hours seizure free.

Now if we could just get the glue out of Brady's hair. The nurses suggested mayonnaise - so gross. Brady smells like an egg salad sandwich but his hair has never looked silkier ;-)

Seizure Update

Just thought I would check in quickly and let everyone know that, due to an alarming number of seizures in the past 24 hours, Brady has been re-admitted to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix.


This is not a bad thing. This is not a scary hospital stay. The type of seizures Brady is having are not dangerous to his health in any way. They are just stressful and in need of being figured out.


We have never been able to record one of Brady's seizures while he is hooked up to an EEG machine and therefore our neurologist is to some extent flying blind when helping us pick the right course of treatment. We stayed in the EMU for three days in October and Brady had no seizure activity whatsoever to record. Instead, he was happy as a clam (see below) and the nurses treated him like a rock star because they don't typically take care of little ones.




This morning our doctor met with us for almost an hour and a half and patiently answered each and every question. I love him for this. It's so rare to get undivided attention from physicians. The EMU is usually booked out at least a month and somehow our Dr.'s staff got us squeezed in at the last minute. I came in to the office this afternoon to check in with some clients and Troy just called me to say they already have recorded one seizure. How strange is it that we were both pumping our fists and yelling "YES! HE HAD ANOTHER ONE!" This EEG information will be extremely helpful in determing exactly what type of seizures Brady is dealing with and from which part of the brain they originate. Also, this means we won't have to spend an indefinite amount of time there - last time we only lasted three days trying to "corral" Brady in a little pen on the floor and keep him from pulling off his "special hat" and the wires underneath.




Brady is feeling pretty well. He is sleepy and cranky for an hour or two after each episode but is very much himself during different windows of time throughout the day. This morning we went to the park. Tonight we will spend the night in the hospital. Epilepsy is weird that way.

We know it will take some time to find the right meds but we are very hopeful and encouraged now. We still have many, many options to try which is a great thing.

Identity Crisis

After numerous complaints that our blog's polka dots were hurting Troy's eyes and were not "man blog friendly," I have simplified our blog template with a strange greenish brown blah color. I will miss the dots but am letting them go for the sake of encouraging more man posts.

I know it sounds silly but I have been thinking a lot lately about what I want our blog to be about. I have been wanting to post a lot more about 1p36, diagnosis, therapy, and the differently-abled in general. It's the one topic on which I feel I really have something to say. And my something to say has been nagging at me like crazy! I am such a rookie in all of this. Blogging, parenting, disabilities, etc. But I think I'll shove a bunch of info into the blogosphere anyway and learn as I go.

Please keep the computer on, Grandma, our little blog is certainly having an identity crisis but will surely continue to feature countless photos of the Bubs.

The Good

Lately our days have go one way or the other - terribly bad or insanely good. I am happy to report that today was of the insanely good variety! I am learning quickly to better appreciate the good days so they can carry me through the challenging ones.

Today started off like this ...

I get a secret thrill over Brady's obsession with reading. He has a Signing Time book and can recognize what the characters are signing and will often sign back. In his own way Brady is reading. So take that, you 16-month old reading prodigy I saw on the Today Show!

Here he is a few minutes later clinging to my sweats while I am trying to get ready.

Just as I start to feel annoyed that my hair will dry funny and that my pants are falling off Brady asks for "up", grabs both of my cheeks, plants a giant kiss on me, lunges to get back down and goes about his merry way throwing toys into the bathtub. I could not ask for a sweeter boy.

Later on...

Today Raising Special Kids held their annual Special Day for Special Kids at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. We had so much fun last year we have been counting down the days and praying Brady would have a good day.

I have to admit I was not a fan of the petting zoo. I was wearing flip flops and was way too worried about stepping in poo.

We ran into a good friend from our music therapy group at Foundation for Blind Children and watched baby Z for a few minutes. Brady is getting old enough to touch babies "soft." Woo hoo!


By the way, Brady is blessed with perfectly normal vision. The kind staff at Foundation for Blind Children took us in simply because his eyes are extremely sensitive to sunlight (why he is always wearing sunglasses in outdoor pics). We are extremely fortunate to be involved with these organizations and I really wish something similar existed in Utah.

Thanks for reading about our day. I hope yours was as good as ours. :-)

On Friends...

I posted late last night, went to bed, and when I got up this morning to check our blog I found so many wonderful and supportive comments. We are so incredibly fortunate to have such amazing and loving friends!!!

A few weeks ago I attended a support meeting full of parents of children with various disabilities. Led by a licensed therapist, we shared our various frustrations and discussed different means of coping. Virtually all of the other parents shared their sadness over losing most of the friends they had before their special children came into their life. I sat there thinking "whaaaaaaat?" and avoided eye contact with the therapist for fear she would ask me about friends. I felt a tiny bit guilty sitting there thinking that NOT A SINGLE ONE of our friends has not been absolutely supportive to us!

I have most likely broken down in front of all of you at least once, or maybe even shut down and avoided friends altogether during a difficult period of diagnosis and grieving. I am so appreciative of your patience and understanding. And thank you for turning my tears of sadness this morning after Brady had yet another seizure to tears of gratitude. We love and appreciate you all so much!

p.s. Troy continues to discuss our options with our neurologist (they speak by phone at least once a week). We still have several options available to us - it's just a matter of trying each one out which will take a bit of time. We will keep you posted.

Lately

I love blogging and the opportunity it presents to record our little family's history, especially considering we don't scrapbook or write in journals. However, I have hesitated to blog about some recent events because I am having a difficult time staying positive!

We were hoping that putting Brady on seizure meds would decrease the frequency and/or severity of his seizures but unfortunately the opposite has occured. He has had 2 to 3 seizures per week lately, some of which have clustered together and turned into grand mal seizures. When this happens we administer a valium suppository and it then takes Brady two or three days to return to normal activities like walking or going to his usual therapy appointments. He is averaging one or two good days a week when he seems like himself.

We are becoming more skilled at handling each situation as it arises and no longer feel the need to call the paramedics. However, each 'event' is still incredibly frightening. It's also becoming frustrating to cancel all of our plans at the last minute and continue to sleep with Brady during all naps and throughout every night. We are finally admitting that we need some help and are starting the process of hiring a respite care provider. Respite basically consists of babysitters who are trained to care for Brady's specific needs and could watch over him while we are home and need some rest, while Troy goes on errands during the day, or in the rare possibility that Troy and I could go out on a date. It might sound insane that we have never hired a sitter since moving to AZ but we are paranoid parents who haven't really dared to ask for help followed by directions for what to do if Brady turns blue.

We have met some amazing families on our journey with Brady, many of whom have extremely medically fragile children, some with limited life expectancy. This has brought me some needed perspective and has helped me adjust my expectations of what I thought my life was going to look like once I had children. I still have my bad days but will readily admit that the positives in our situation ALWAYS outweigh the negatives. I mean, have you seen this smile?

I feel better already. Thank you, internet, for helping me stay positive.

100% Random

Not much to blog about this week. You know you're getting desperate to get out when your idea of an exciting Friday night consists of checking out the new Whole Foods store down the street. Here are some pics of a few of the people we run into each week...

This is Brady's physical therapist, Amber. Brady has worked with Amber twice a week for over a year now. I'm sure he considers her family because, without exception, he squeals with delight when we pull into the parking lot on Wednesday & Friday mornings. That stinker has even been known to give Amber extra hugs and kisses in attempts to distract her from particularly challenging sessions.

This is Betsy, Brady's new speech therapist. Speech has been especially challenging/frustrating but Betsy (along with Brady's feeding therapist Angie) never gives up! They are even traveling to the east coast this month for training which they think will help Brady work with them more effectively. We have a handful of other therapists we absolutely love but I don't have pictures yet!

Last but not least... Miss Jules, who despite her Diva appearance is actually very tolerant of BYU t-shirt wearing little neighbor boys :-)

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know

Here it is…the long awaited (or at least long winded) 2nd half of the “Farnsworth Tag”

Ten Years Ago-
I was senior at BYU playing baseball and majoring in health (minoring in pe/coaching…I insanely added drivers ed as a second minor years later).

Five Places I Have (not?) Visited-
I have been very fortunate when it comes to traveling the country. There are only a handful of states (literally) that I have yet to see or step foot on. 10 years of living on a bus and in hotels took me to some amazing places. Here are some of my favorite (and not so favorite) places that I have either lived or visited. I listed them by region since I know we all have March Madness on our minds. Most of my opinions are formed by the experiences I had at the ball parks, hotels, and hole in the wall restaurants (After all, what else in life matters?). Oh yeah, people matter too. I have met some amazing life long friends in every region along the way.
1. West (I may be a little biased but Utah tops the list…too bad I never took advantage of the mountains before we moved away)
Places to visit: Lake Powell (I am forever in debt to the Culley’s), La Jolla...home of my first attempt at surfing (Kajsa calls me the biggest poser but that’s ok, I loved it…all 15 or 20 seconds of it!!), and Las Vegas (there’s nothing like the sound of money hitting the bins as you enter the casinos…luckily I don’t drink and I’m too poor to gamble much or I’d really be in trouble)
Place to avoid: Adelanto, CA (Unless you like tumbleweeds and ending your baseball career!)
2. Southwest
Places to visit: Phoenix, and Houston (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, PGA, Tennis Masters, Major Universities, Spring Training, golf and tennis year-round, and great restaurants (especially in Houston)…need I say more
Place to avoid: The stretch of highway from El Paso to Houston!
3. Midwest…I loved the Midwest (the weather was crazy and I loved the people/lifestyle. I don’t know why but I am fascinated by farming and I couldn’t believe the first time I saw the sky turn green right before a crazy storm hit and tornado sirens were sounding).
Places to visit: Sioux Falls (I never thought I would say it but I loved living in South Dakota…but then again I also loved living in Price, UT so take it for what it’s worth!!), Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Lincoln
Place to avoid: Clinton, IA (it literally stinks there.)
4. Northeast…Although the West/Midwest/Southwest is more my style, it is crazy when you realize how much history there is in this part of the country. I also could not believe how green it was the first summer that I spent in Upstate New York.
Places to visit: Washington, D.C. (we are counting that as northeast), NYC, Boston / Foxboro (Ok so I’ve never actually been to Boston or Foxboro but I know they would make my list after taking in a Red Sox and Patriots game. I’ve seen the Patriots play in Miami, and the Red Sox play in Phoenix but I have not seen them play at home yet.)
Place to avoid: All freeways at rush hour.
5. South
Places to visit: Clearwater Beach, South Beach, Coco Beach, Key West, Myrtle Beach…see any pattern
Place to avoid:

I Enjoy (surprisingly these are not in any particular order)…
1. All sports (tennis is my sport of choice right now)
2. Playing the guitar (especially with friends)
3. The Outback Special…medium rare, sweet potato (with butter, sugar, and cinnamon), about 3 loafs of the bread, and salad with ranch
4. Learning (but I hate reading)
5. Music…Here are my all time favorites (this one is in order of course)
1. Counting Crows
2. 3 Doors Down
3. Toad the Wet Sprocket
4. Goo Goo Dolls
5. Pearl Jam (Ten Only)
6. Vertical Horizon
7. Jeremy Camp
8. Our Lady Peace
9. Phil Collins / Genesis
10. #’s 1-9 acoustic
6. Eating bowl after bowl of cereal before bed like I’m still in High School
7. Water and Sun (Water-skiing, surfing, swimming, the beach…I love it all)
8. Rain (Especially the laugh out loud, because you can’t believe how hard it’s coming down rain) 9. Ocean, Mountain, Forest, Lake, River, Farmland, Desert (or any other) Views that makes a location unique
10. A good burger
11. The 4th of July (It doesn’t get any better than baseball, barbeques, and fireworks)
12. A good laugh
13. T.V. (see #12)…Friends, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Two and a Half Men and my new favorite…Rules of Engagement
14. Late night Donut runs
15. Listening to Kajsa play the piano (Don’t ask her though…she won’t play if you do)
16. Reading cd inserts to find other musicians’ musical influences
17. Fast Food…We currently live less than one mile from an In and Out Burger (A friend of mine likes to give me grief because I always give directions using fast food restaurants as land marks)
18. Being Mr. Mom
19. Doing things late at night
20. Brady’s smile/laugh

3 Bad Habits
1- I’m obsessive
2- I’m cheap
3- I’m stubborn

5 Things You May Not Know About Me
1- I’m a list maker…everything has to be ranked (I found out that this may genetic after I found lists upon lists in my Grandma’s drawer with things like: soups I like…soups I really like…soups I don’t like…etc)
2-I have recorded 2 acoustic cd’s (sort of)…One contains original songs and lyrics (which my friend Curtis and his brother Adam later took and added guitar solos, and backup vocals and gave me as a gift). The other cd contains covers of some of my favorite songs.
3- I have driven across the country twice without stopping for more than a couple of power naps. I did this once with a friend from D.C. to SLC and once by myself from Jacksonville to SLC…I do not recommend this unless you enjoy hallucinating and urinating on yourself because you’re too tired to realize your clothes are in the line of fire.
4-Since leaving for college I’ve had at least 25 addresses changes (only counting those that were for at least a month or longer). These changes included 16 cities and 11 states.
5-The only place I’ve been outside of the U.S. is Winnipeg, Canada.

5 Jobs I’ve Had
1- Office runner (Howells Systems)…A new family tradition
2- Construction (ok grunt) Worker…I still laugh at this because I am useless when it comes to fixing things and my co-workers had to play a game of charades every time they needed a tool.
3- Personal Trainer (Bally’s)
4- Assistant Coach (Houston Christian High School and BYU)
5- Head Baseball Coach / Health and PE teacher (Timpview High School)

I know it’s long but once I start on something (as you now know) I obsess until it’s done. Good luck to all of your brackets…except for you Kajsa…this is finally my year to beat you (unless of course you win the $500 in your office pool again like last year).
I tag Matt & Sara Staker and Curtis & Tami Sanders

Where Is The Man Tag?

Troy, we are all anxiously awaiting your tag! I know you have been preoccupied by your NCAA brackets as you are trying to beat my picks at least once in your lifetime. But some of us really want to see more stuff about you on this blog.

I know you started working on it the other night and got frustrated by how long it might take after you spent a good ten minutes rewording "I got tagged by Kajsa and Jane" because it sounded too dirty. No one was fazed by your SLCC Balls comment over at Jenn's blog so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Also, I promise I will stop giving you grief over not mentioning me in the "10 years ago" category.

Easter, Brady Style

Our first Easter Egg hunt! The HOA loaded the park with eggs and made all of the kids wait 15 minutes longer than initially planned. I thought there was going to be a riot - the bigger kids were angry, yelling, and grabbing the yellow tape ready to destroy!

Ready, set, go...

Brady thinks eggs are boring, eats sand and lunges for Mom's camera.

Maybe this is because Mom tried to pass off her purse as an Easter basket.

Meeting up with Dad for some pizza at Sauce was much more Brady's style.

Enough with the pictures!

Happy Easter!

Clarification

Hmmm.. now that I read my previous post I think it could be taken a couple of different ways, one of which might be slightly offensive!

I actually had two separate thoughts when I made the post, 1) to poke fun at myself and 2) to recognize the fact that most of the kind readers and commentors of our posts are, in fact, friends from Granger High. I was in no way poking fun at anyone but myself.

Troy and I have been reading friends' blogs together and reminiscing so I guess I just have high school on the brain.

Sorry if it didn't come out right!

Soooo High School

I found this blog test over at Clementine. Apparently Troy & I write at a high school level which is only fitting considering that our comments section resembles a Granger High School reunion!

I am actually thrilled considering this thing can return an Elementary rating. Kudos to Troy who constantly responds to me yelling across the house "Ime bloging - come and help mah spell and write goood!" Troy has serious spelling skills which drives me nuts because I AM ALWAYS READING while he prefers not to read anything more lengthy than the captions in Sports Illustrated. I am so jealous of his skills!

Tagged

Jane Rhodes has tagged us and I'm going first because a joint tag would require Troy and me (Troy is interrupting and trying to change this to 'Troy and I') to work together on a post and see, we are already arguing!

Ten years ago... 1998-I was working full time as an administrative assistant for AT&T Media, living in my parents' basement and going to school at the University of Utah. I was in a ridiculously dramatic, on again, off again relationship with some guy and Mindy Taylor convinced me to go out with one of Scott's friends from Granger who was reported to be both, and I quote, "hot" and "nice." Troy was indeed hot and nice and we went out twice before he left for spring training and I got back together with that other guy. It's a good thing Mindy is persistent because she and Scott were forced to set us up AGAIN in 2002. Obviously the second time stuck!

5 places I've visited...

Other than those parts of Canada & Mexico that are close to the border, my feet have remained firmly planted on U.S. soil. Some of my favorite trips/places...

• Washington DC
• Seattle
• Chicago
• Minneapolis (on account of that ginormous mall)
• Oahu

There are so many great places I have yet to see (including NYC!) but the thought of traveling to foreign countries stresses me out. I have always admired those people I know that travel the world!

I enjoy...

• Troy & Brady (I promise I'm not being cheesy. I really do not get to spend enough time with either of them)
• Blogging, my new hobby
• Reading, my lifelong hobby
• Vegging on the couch watching Oprah, Grey's, Biggest Loser, HGTV, Discovery Health Channel, and totally random shows on MTV/VH1
• Tennis - Troy taught me a few years ago
• Skiing - the ONLY sport I can kick Troy's butt in
• Running - although it's been YEARS

3 bad habits... Only three?

• Eating junk & never exercising
• Blog stalking. I am super embarrassed to admit that I like to 'browse' everybody's friends' links, blogs, etc. I am getting better at fessing up and leaving comments. I still don't have a feel for proper blog etiquette!
• Troy says that I have to list not putting the lids on my contact cases (or anything else) at night. Personally, I think this is no biggie.

5 things you may not know about me...

• Kajsa is a swedish name that my great aunt found in geneology
• I was an alternate on the academic decathlon team in high school. Yes, alternate. That means I am a big enough nerd to be on the team but not smart enough to compete. To this day I get along spectacularly with engineers, techies, quants, etc. even though I only understand half of what they say.
• I have big feet. Have you ever shopped for size 10 1/2? It doesn't exist so I slosh around in 11's or wince in pain every time I take a step.
• I routinely read medical journals, although US Weekly is a close 2nd.
• I am a morning person/early bird which Troy hates.

5 jobs I have had...

• Piano accompanist in a ballet studio - jr. high
• Bank teller (my cash ALWAYS has to face a certain way now) - college
• Manager of Red's Frozen Yogurt - high school
• Risk analyst (swap pricing and option volatility) on a trade floor - in H-town
• Mommy - unfortunately this occurs outside of work but it's still my job!

I'm tired and you might be asleep if you made it through this list. I now tag Troy (that's two so you better do it!), Erin Johanson and Jenn Culley.

I Love This Gift!

My super talented sister Alexis drew this portrait of Brady and sent it along with Grandma to Phoenix this week. I am constantly amazed at her talent which involves ALL mediums. She has given me several of her paintings over the years and I'm equally amazed by the time and effort she puts forth into everything she does. Ali, sorry for the yellowy tone (and for the lack of proper 'artist' vocabulary)- this is camera user error on my part and not reflective of your art! This is the picture she worked from and thankfully she removed the food from Brady's face.

I'm so proud of Ali. Her talents are endless and she was recently faced with the dilemma of whether to focus on art or music when she attends Utah State this fall. She received a 5 on her AP art exam as a junior and her perfect pitch gives her an advantage in AP music theory. Oh to have such talents. It just won't be the same when I build her a beautiful spreadsheet one day!

Seriously though, figuring out what to study in school can be brutal. However, I know any choice of Ali's will be met with success. Good luck, sis - you only have three more months of senior-itis ;-)