Musingi House

So over the last few months, Kenyon has been very sick.  He has had stomach and or digestive issues for months.  He has lost 12+ pounds, had stomach pain and other things associated with digestive problems.

The pain got to be so bad that around Thanksgiving time, we had to put him in the hospital.  After about 5 hours at the Emergency Room and several tests, the doctors said they did not find a problem and they were sending him home.  Cristal said no, we do not have a solution.  The pain is too much to control at home and you have no idea what is going on.

They admitted him to the hospital and he spent a week in the hospital.  He actually had a few scopes done and they found a lower bowel obstruction, but still did not solve the problem.  After several different tests, it was determined his gall bladder was bad and needed to be removed.  Surgery was scheduled for right after Christmas.

Then around the 8th, Kyra came down with Influenza B and was going to be home for at least a week.  Ken's pain got to be so bad, that surgery was moved up to December 10th.  Scott went up to help with the other kids and get them where they needed to be.

Then Myles got sick with a double ear infection and Cristal got sick with a sinus infection.

Cristal's kitchen counter looked like a pharmacy.  Scott spent a few days with Cristal and then I traded places with him on Friday, December 12th.

By Saturday night, the pain was back for Ken and it was unbearable. He had been vomitting for about 36 hours.  Not able to eat and keep anything down.  The pain pills would not stay down as well. Back to the hospital we went.  Nice when Cristal knows the right people to call.  She spoke with the surgeon and did a direct admit to the pediatrics unit and bypassed the emergency room.

IV's were installed with fluid and pain meds.  More tests were run looking for a bile leak.  Finally about Monday, the pain subsided.  He was able to start eating again and keeping stuff down.  Ken was released on Tuesday morning.

Scott and I again traded places on Tuesday evening.  Wednesday was a good day for Ken with eating and getting his strength back.  It is now Thursday and Scott is on his way home.  Ken is feeling better and hopefully things settle down for the Musingi's.  Woo hoo!!

Grandkids this weekend

Had some of the grandkids this weekend.  Friday night four of the kids came and spent the night.  Davis loves the cars and trucks.  He had to climb up on the table to get a better view.  I usually get up pretty early in the morning and Davis likes to get up early too.  I go in and get him so Mom and Dad can sleep a little longer.  He is starved when he wakes up, so we have fun playing to getting him fed.  It is fun to figure out what they like to eat and get them fed so they are happy.

Bailey and Zoey had such a good time playing together.  The Polly Pocket dolls get used very well while they are at the house.

Update on Lockers

This past couple weeks I have been working on the locker's for my niece's house.  The bottom case is 15 inches high, the locker is 62 inches high and the top part is 15 inches high.  Over all it is 93 inches tall.  They will be put on top of a 2 x 4 base, which will take it up to 92 inches.  That leaves plenty of room for 6 inch crown moulding on top to finish it off.  Each locker is 21 1/2 inches wide on the outside.  The inside width will be 20 inches wide.

 This is the front view of the locker.

The bottom case is where the kids can sit to take shoes off or put them on.  I made the bottom case 34 inches deep because the space where it will fit in is 36 inches deep.  In comparing the appearance and usefulness of the bottom case, I moved the locker forward four inches to make the overall case 32 inches deep.  The surface area on the original picture above is 22 inches.  When I move the locker forward 4 inches, it makes the surface area 18 inches and I am wondering if that has a more balanced appearance and usefulness.  Still debating.

Then the next step was putting a 5 1/2 inch thick piece of alder at the top of the locker to add stability to the case, but also a place to screw the locker to the wall when we get ready to install the lockers.  Good thing the weather was good this weekend so I could utilize the front apron to the shop.  With all the cases in the shop, it makes it pretty crowded.  Had to move the lockers outside so I could cut the plywood for the backs.

The next part of the assembly was to cut rabbits at the back of the lockers to insert the case backs.  That was messy!!  The plywood is MDF so I had dust all over the place.  Good thing I could have the doors opened and the dust collection working good.  Got all seven of the tall lockers finished with the backs installed.

Next up is to do the same thing for the top case and bottom case.  This project is moving along very well.  So much fun to have projects and a place to build them!!!

The next project!!

Started working on some "lockers" for a niece's house.  The lockers will go in the garage and help her organize five little one's coats, boots, gloves and backpacks.

This is the picture of what Lisa wants in her garage.  Still not sure if we are going to have doors on all the lockers, but this is what we have started.  Going to make it out of knotty alder and stain them so they match the rest of the cabinets in the house.

This is the area the lockers are going.  The door way on the left goes in to the mud room and kitchen.  The cabinet or closet on the right is where the hot water heater is.  There will be seven lockers and will go floor to ceiling.

So I got the lockers started this past weekend.  We hauled in 4 sheets of 4 x 8 alder MDF plywood and got to cutting.  My new work bench with the expandable wings worked awesome.  I could rip the 4 x 8 sheets without any trouble and nothing fell on the floor.

Got 5 of the bottom cabinets put together this weekend and then ran out of wood.  Had to run to the wood store and buy more plywood.  Should have enough plywood now to do the upright lockers and the top cabinets above the lockers.

The bottom cabinets are 21 1/2 inches wide, by 15 inches tall and 34 inches long.  These cabinets will have either baskets or drawers in them to hold boots, gloves, and any other little things the kids need to put away.  The tall lockers are about 12 inches deep, so the kids will be able to sit on the front part to take boots off, hang up coats, etc.

Love starting new projects!!

Shop Time again!!

Over the last two months, shop time was pretty scarce.  I have my work bench at the end of my table saw and use it as an outfeed table when I cut long pieces of wood on the table saw.  That all works good unless I am ripping 4 x 8 sheets of plywood.  Whenever I rip sheets of plywood, one piece usually falls off the table and it is very dangerous and awkward.

Found a building plan for a work bench that expands to cut sheets of plywood.

 The table is made out of 2 x 4 and 2 x 6's.  I built the table about 36 inches wide and about 70 inches long.  The bottom is built to hold sand to give the table some extra bulk and so it does not walk away when sanding, hand planing or cutting dovetails.

On each of the long sides, there are wings that allow the table to expand another 25 inches on each side. 

 This picture shows the wings expanded a bit.  On the wings, there are T-track channels to allow the expansion to be controlled and secured by tightening the knob on the side of the leg.

 I bought a butcher block table top for the table.  I built the bench in such a way that the butcher block fits in the top of the table.  I was just a hair too wide with the table top, so I used the router, with a trim bit and a straight edge to fine tune the table top.

I have already ripped a sheet of 4 x 8 MDF for the bottom shelf.  Expanded the wings and ripped the sheet without any trouble and without anything falling off the table.

Still need to put the drawers in the bottom of the work bench, but I think this is going to work really well.

Added Nov. 17, 2014

Got the end vice installed on the bench this past week.  It was a bugger to get installed, but finally got it done.  I bought a vice that allowed for an 1 1/2" top, which I thought would be just fine.  After I got the holes drilled for the "workings" to go through the side, it was too close to the top of the bench and the inside hardware could not fit.  Had to redrill some holes and make some adjustments, but finally got it to fit.  Now I need to fix the extra set of  holes, but it is all good.

 In the bottom of my old bench, I had these drawers to put small tools and pieces.  With the longer, wider bench, I needed to build two extra cases for the red drawers.  Got the cases installed and the red drawers installed.  Had to order additional red drawers last week, and they should be here this week.

On to the next project!!!

So the weekend of October 10-12 when we went to Idaho Falls to visit Musingi's and before all the excitement at the hospital with Kenyon, we had some fun with the kids.  Kyra has been playing volleyball in a recreational league.  She does very well and loves to play volleyball.

 We were able to get a team picture of her and the rest of her team mates.  We had fun watching.

My weekends have all kind of blurred together, but one night we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate our birthday's.  Kyra chose Buffalo Wild Wings and they had birthday hats for everyone having a birthday.  Fun to be together!!

Halloween 2014 in Utah County

So I have been working with Utah County Personnel Office for almost a week.  We definitely have our share of parties and get togethers.

I knew something was up when we started practicing a dance to do at the County Halloween Party. 

Well today was the day.  Everybody in our office dressed up as Zombies and we did a short dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller.  We had a ball.

After we got done with the County party, we had a potato bar and had a great lunch.

Kellie

 Jane

 Kendra even bought white contacts to make her eyes weird.

I dressed up as a Mummy.

Tender Mercies

After a pretty rough September and October, we had several things happen to us to restore our faith that we were going to survive another day.

For Young Men and Young Women's the Priests came to the house to "help" around the house.  They dug up our tomato plants and get them in the trash.  They also climbed to the top of our huge ladder to help change the batteries in two of our smoke detectors that are in the pitch of our vaulted ceilings. 

When the Priests got done at our house, I went to find the Laurel's.  They were at the YW's President's house.  The Laurel's and the rest of the Priests had been making dinner for us.  What a nice surprise!!

Then Sunday when we got home from church, our door had been hit with all kinds of thoughtful notes from the Young Women.  Plus a plate of cookies.

Kenyon

So after the wonderful September we had, Scott and I decided to head to Idaho Falls for the weekend to visit with Musingi's.  We did not get up there in time to watch Taekwondo, but we were going to be able to watch Kyra play two volleyball matches and Myka to watch her soccer match.

Had a great visit until late Saturday night/Sunday morning.  Ken had been having nausea issues for several weeks.  Cristal thought maybe it was tied to a Scout camping trip and some bad water.  She had taken him to the doctor and he had been on antibiotics for several days, but he was only getting worse.

We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse after a day of running, putting up more shelves, errands, etc.

Around midnight, the pain got to be so bad that Ken could not stand up.  Cristal and I ran him to the emergency room.  They ran all kinds of tests.   They put in an IV with pain medicine and fluids because he had been dehydrated. Everything came back negative. So around 3:00 A.M., the doctor was going to send us home.

Cristal told him "NO!"  We are not going home.  His pain can not be controlled, he is sick, he has lost 12+ pounds.  She wanted more tests run and wanted to find out what was going on with Ken.

Kenny was admitted to the hospital and that started a week full of tests.  Scott and I went home Sunday, thinking he would be out the next day.  That did not happen.

Scott went back  up to Idaho on Tuesday to help out with getting the other kids where they needed to go and to help where he could.  We traded places on Friday, October 17th.  I took Monday off, so I stayed 3 days.

Ken had a bowel obstruction so he was given all kinds of "stuff" to clear him out.  He had three scopes done, along with biopsies taken to check for other possible problems.

Ken was released Friday.  Over the weekend he was doing better but still not up to par.  He wen to school Monday.  Scott and I traded places again on Monday, October 20th.  Scott stayed until Thursday, Oct. 22 and came home.

On Thursday, October 23, Ken had a follow up appointment with the doctor and found out no problems with Krohn's, Ulcerative collitis or Ciliac, but that he has been producing an unusual amount of acid in his belly and he has some sores in his belly.  Going to try medicine to work on the acid production in his belly.

Grandkids updates

Myka has been playing school soccer and has had a ball.  Because of everything else going on in my life, we have not been able to see any of her games.  We are headed to their place this weekend to catch her last soccer game of the season.

Kyra has been doing volleyball this fall.  She has two matches this weekend while we are visiting, so we will be able to watch her play some volleyball.

The three younger kids have been doing Taekwondo and passed off their next belt.  They are all at purple belt level.  Yes, there is Taekwondo this weekend too, so we get to see them all doing their stuff.

This last weekend, Jacob and Becca came to visit for Conference weekend and for Zoey's birthday party.

Davis discovered the activity board I made a few years ago.  He was playing with all the hardware on that.  He could not understand while the ceiling lights would not go off and on with the switch on the activity board.

We had fun with Jacob and Becca, Bailey and Davis.

Need to find my pictures of Zoey's birthday party.  She had two ponies at her party for kids to ride. 

The Worst Two Weeks Ever!!!

On Sunday, September 7th at around 11:00 P.M., my sister called to tell me one of her son-in-laws committed suicide.  He was living in New York.  Luckily his wife and 5 kids were already living in Idaho.  He has had years of substance abuse, behavior issues and general all around issues.  He had beaten up my niece in January and hit two of the kids.  After that, the kids and her came home to Idaho.

I was awake for most of the night talking with my sister, answering questions, figuring out what was going to happen next.  We finally went to bed around 3:30.  I slept for a couple hours, got up around 6:00 and headed to Idaho to help my sister and my niece with the five kids.

There were funeral plans to make, get the body home from New York, viewing, funeral, etc to deal with.  During the week I helped with kids, did laundry, cleaned houses, did shopping, ran errands, etc.  On Monday, I let Tyler and Kylee "fix" my hair.  They had so much fun.

On Friday, September 12th, while I was in Idaho, Scott's Aunt Maurine passed away in Orem.  She was 86 years old.  She fell a few weeks ago and had screws placed in the hip to hold it together.  She developed blood clots and had been in and out of the hospital a few times.

While I was in Idaho with my sister, we got word from Nevada that my Mom had failed very quickly and her doctor had given her 7-10 days.  Hospice was called in to help make that transition.

The viewing was held in Idaho on Friday, September 12th and the funeral on Saturday, September 13th.  Maurine's funeral was held in Las Vegas on Friday, September 19th.  I did not make it to that one.

My sister Jan flew out to Idaho on Thursday, September 11th to be with my sister Pat and niece Lisa.  Once the funeral in Idaho was done, we headed back to my house, do laundry and repack suitcases and head to Carson City.

Cristal had gone down to Mom's on Saturday and was giving us reports on Mom's progress.  She was very sick and her kidney's were shutting down.

We got to Carson City Sunday afternoon and Mom was alert, but very confused.  She did not know who we were.  We had a few good days of visiting with Mom, getting her outside in the sun, which she loved.

My son Cliff, who has not talked to me in over two years came in to town on Monday to see Mom.  

My brother Ed came in from Wyoming on Tuesday.  Not sure if Mom recognized him or not.

On Wednesday, my brother Mike from Alaska came in to town to visit.  I had not seen Mike since Cristal was about a year old.

Mom ate really good Sunday and Monday.  She was pretty alert both days, but very confused.  We put her in bed around 9:00 PM both nights and slept through breakfast.  She woke up both days around lunch time and was starved.  Monday and Tuesday she ate lunch and dinner and we spent the afternoon outside in the courtyard behind her place.

Wednesday she was not very hungry, but had part of a chocolate shake.  We put her to bed Wednesday night and that was the last time she was awake.  She slept Wednesday night all night.  Thursday morning Hospice came in and gave her a bed bath.  She commented that felt really good, and that was the last she said anything.  Wednesday and Thursday night were very restless for her.  Her breathing was labored and she had difficulty.  Thursday night was so bad, Jan and I stayed with Cristal all night.

Friday morning her breathing was very labored and loud.  For a few days, she had long pauses in her breathing, but every time she would start breathing again.  Friday around 11:30 A.M. she had two big gasps and stopped breathing.

Hospice had to come in to declare her dead and the funeral home was notified.

We did a graveside service Monday morning in the Fernley, Nevada Veterans Cemestary.  An Honor Guard was there to do taps, Amazing Grace, a 21 gun salute and folding of the flag.  Very classy.  The Honor Guard did a great tribute to Mom.