Diagnosis- finally!

So, for those of you who do not know I have been having problems with my thyroid and hair breakage for about four months now. I have gone through lots of blood test, biopsies, ultrasounds, bad doctors, etc. After many months of test and a doctor who really did not care- I was able to get a second opinion from a great endocrinologist. He took his time with me, looked over all my labs and then casually mentioned in our conversation that I have Hashimoto's (he assumed I would have already known this). I have done some more labs to see if there is any additional course of treatment I can do at this time. If any of you are interested in learning about this condition just Google "Hashimoto".
Eventhough I do not enjoy the side effects of Hashimoto's (high cholesterol, hair breakage, weight gain, enlarged thyroid, cyst, lethargy, etc) I was so excited to know what was wrong with me :o)! I guess I will just have to get use to this new hair of mine- it will save me lots of money as I have only had one hair cut in five months. So the next time you see me- no I do not color my hair- no it is not overtreated- yes I have a weird disease that sounds like it came straight out of a Disney movie!!!

Happy Easter 2008

We hosted Easter at our house this year. It was a beautiful day! There were about 40 people who were able to make it and we hope they all had as good of a time that we all did! My Grandma and Bob were unable to attend because they were both REALLY SICK ! If you know my grandparents you know that it was devistating to them to not be able to attend! We really missed you- thanks for the ham! I have added some extra pictures for you so you can see what we all did. We started with an egg hunt in the back yard, ate dinner (ham, sweet potatoes, cheese potatoes, deviled eggs,salad, brocolli, fruit, peas, rolls, etc.), then we had another egg hunt in the front yard. All the kids went home with lots of candy and $$ from the eggs! We ended with an assortments of yummy desserts- flower cake, strawberry pie and chocolate dipped strawberries! Last but not least the kids took advantage of the warm weather and finished the night in the pool.
Grace is hunting for Easter Eggs- lots of the eggs had $ in them and she was able to collect over $6.00! She was the big winner of the day :o)!
Here is Noah hunting eggs with some assistance
Happy first Easter to Elsie and Caleb! Caleb must have really enjoyed it because he was so good all day!
Easter baskets all lined up in the morning
Aren't these just the best looking kids ever ?!?!

Here are some people eating their Easter dinner- yum...

Dying Easter Eggs

Saturday we dyed Easter Eggs in preparation for the Easter Bunny visit on Sunday. It was so much fun now that they can all almost do it by themselves. I was actually able to sit down for a bit and join them by decorating my own eggs instead of helping the entire time!

Here is Meredith coloring on her egg before she put it in the dye.

Everyone sitting down together! Ryan is so artistic that he drew a Temple on one of his eggs. Much better than my polka dots and flowers.

The finished product!

Roadshow 2008

Our Stake Roadshow was the first week of March. The theme was "www. (fill in the blank).com". Our ward performed first and not that I am bias, but they were fabulous! It was like a real production- the acting, dancing, singing, costumes, sets, etc. We were truly blessed to have such great YM/YW leaders and roadshow directors. Our theme was www.we've got the answer.com. It was a western love story- dot fell in love with Comstock (aka Com).

Some of the highlights from the other wards were "Pop goes my heart" (Trevor sings it all the time) and the "High School Musical 8". If you were there you get it :o)!


Here is after the Salon song. We could not have a typical western "saloon" so they changed it to a salon!


Here is Mackenzie dancing with one of the deacons (Damon Jarmon)

Here is the bad guy (the Bishop's son)- he was so classic- love the laugh :o)!

Dot and Com have finally come together and they all lived happily ever after in the town of Tumbleweed!

How fast can you type?

So Kara had her typing stats on her blog so I decided to try it out. I ended up typing 67 words per minute- I thought I was faster :o(! Anyway she was in the 80's!! Go Kara! Of course I cannot post mine like hers because I cannot seem to figure out how to transfer those darn things to my blog!!! Anyone out there teach a blogging 101 class........

Tball Trevor

Saturday was Trevor's first Tball game. He is playing for the Astros and is lucky enough to have four friends from church and one friend from school on his team! His Coach is a great guy from church and Ryan is one of the assistant coaches! It is great to live in a community where there are so many people of the same faith!


Trevor was so excited to wear the "hard helmet"!



He got to try out being the catcher. He thought he was pretty cool with all the equipment on!




The favorite part of the game was....you guessed it.....the chocolate chip cookies for snack :o)!

We look forward to more fun games this season!

This girl likes.....

Can you guess what this girl likes, no LOVES....... Whip cream????
Marshmallow creme????
No! Sour Cream!!! She will eat it by the spoonful! We had fajitas for dinner tonight and she did not want to finish hers so our conversation went like this:

Meredith: "If I eat all my chicken can I lick the WHIP CREAM off the spoon?"
Mom: "You want to lick the SOUR CREAM off the spoon?"
Meredith: "YEP!!"

Sure enough she finished her chicken super fast and indulged in the sour cream!

What strange things do your kids like to eat???

Girls Night Out- BYU Young Ambassadors

On Saturday night the Clarke girls and the Jones girls (minus one) had a girls night out. Here is how the evening went: Dinner at SuperMex on 2nd Street- Mexican is always a favorite in our group!
The girls at their own table- too mature to sit with their mom's j/k!!
Then we drove down Ocean Boulevard to the Long Beach Performing Arts Center to enjoy a fabulous performance by the BYU Young Ambassadors. It was a great show- the music, costumes, dancing, singing- what more could a girl want?!? It was hard not to sing along :o)!
After the show we had to try out the much raved about "Pinkberry". I think we are the last people to try this yogurt shop in our entire Ward. If you know me you know that I LOVE FROZEN YOGURT- that being said I DID NOT love Pinkberry. I would choose simply tart at Golden Spoon (my all time favorite yogurt place) over Pinkberry any day! Please do not shoot me all you Pinkberry lovers- everyone has their opinion :o)!
Madalyn decided after a sample that she did not like the yogurt so she got a shaved ice with fruit on the top. Who knew it was going to be so HUGE!!!

It was a fun evening- it is not often we get to go out with just the big girls! Thanks Erin for inviting us!

Goodbye Mom and Grandma

After about a year and a half battle with cancer Ryan's mom (Sharon Kay Jones) passed away on February 17,2008. She was 64 years old (almost 65 on the 21 of February). She was able to spend her last days in the comforts of her home with her husband Keith and family. She was a great woman and will be missed by many.

Above is the most recent picture we have when she was at our house last in February 2007. We were celebrating all the February birthdays.

Here are all the the "kids"(L-R) Renay, Rodney, Ryan, Randy, Robyn (and Keith)

Sharon's services were held February 23rd in Murrietta and her graveside was at Green Hills in San Pedro. Ryan gave a beautiful eulogy and his siblings shared family memories. Rodney was the most memorable as a few of us thought he just might propose to his girlfriend over the pulpit :o)!!! Luckily it did not happen at that moment- hopefully one day.....

Between the service and the dedication of the grave Sharon's ward hosted a wonderful luncheon of chicken enchiladas and chips from Chevy's- just as Sharon ordered! It was yummy. Rachel put together a slide show of some pictures of Sharon to show at the luncheon. It was a great tribute!


The grandkids sang "I Love To See The Temple" just before the dedication of the grave. It was suppose to be a rainy day, but luckily the only time it rained all day was during the prayer at the graveside. Goodbye Mom and Grandma- we will see you again one day!