Luckily for everyone in my family we had stuff on the calendar. Saturday morning we had a ward primary activity. The theme was preparing for General Conference and our presidency did an amazing job. The kids loved playing a General Authority matching game, they made conference bingo cards, we had singing time, they each got to take home a General Conference activity book and crayons to keep them interested/quiet during conference next weekend. It was a lot of fun for everyone and we topped it off by eating President Monson's favorite dessert... ice cream!! I know Riley was paying attention because in the car after the activity she said to me, "Mom did you know we have a new prophet? His name's President Monson!" I don't know where she has been the last couple of months but I'm pleased to see that she had her little light bulb moment.
After the activity I took the three oldest kids and Jake's best buddy Beau out for lunch and then to our local children's science museum, the Discovery Center. We had a great time I unfortunately didn't have my camera with me but the kids had a blast checking out all of the exhibits. They have two main exhibits right now including "the amazing human body" there is a little area that focuses on gas they have some bouncy stools that the kids can keep bounce up and down on each time lands it lets out a loud gassy sound. Needless to say this was the hot spot for my kids to hang out at. After spending all day together Jake got invited to go to Beau's grandparent's house for a movie night. From the report I got they had a blast. Later that evening I went to a my good friend Shaunna's house (her husband is working out of town this week so she needed some company) we rented a chick flick and I worked on my singing time props the next day. It was so fun to sit and visit with her I am sure going to miss her when she moves this summer.
Sunday Jeremy stayed home with Morgan she seems to have a stomach virus or something because she has lots of diarrhea and gas. Poor baby isn't really sleeping well and she really seems to be uncomfortable. I took the other three kids and I had my usual singing time with the primary. I really like my calling I can be creative I get to have fun with the kids and I get to learn new songs and relearn all the classics I grew up on. This week I got my singing time idea from where I get all of my better ideas... the internet. It really turned out cute I know I have a couple of friends who work Primary on here so I will show you what I did. We started the April song, We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet, and I made some props to try and help the kids remember the the words for the first verse and then I took pictures of them holding their props up. I will glue the pictures onto card stock so THEY can be the visual aide. I did this last year with one song and they LOVED it.
We thank thee, O God, for a prophet To guide us in these latter days.
We thank thee for sending the gospel To lighten our minds with its rays.
We thank thee for every blessing Bestowed by thy bounteous hand.
We feel it a pleasure to serve thee And love to obey thy command.
I realize that two out of the four kids here are mine. I took several pictures of kids holding the same props and I will chose two from jr. and two from sr. primary to make the "final cut" for my visual aide. I didn't want people to think I favored my kids... If anything I am drawn to two other family's kids because they behave so well for me in singing time.
Let me share a little something about myself with everyone out there. I HATE HATE HATE driving in any city with more than two highways. Driving is not one of my skills. I get nervous, frustrated and second guess every move I make. Driving in Dallas was no exception. The entire time I was there trying to navigate all of the MILLIONS of highways and freeways I was a mess. My poor kids probably thought I was nuts or something because any time I would start stressing or get shot off onto a wrong freeway I would tell them we were sort of lost again and to pray that mommy could find the right freeway (there were a lot of prayers on Thursday through out the day). I kept wishing I could just borrow a native Dallasonian and make them drive us to all the places we needed to get to. By the time we finished our doctor's appointment and finally found our hotel I was soooo tense that my head, neck, shoulders and arms were all very sore. It really was very pathetic. 
I kept thinking about The Amazing Race and wondered how the heck they do it. I made the very easy decision right then and there that when Emily and I go and compete on The Amazing Race she will have to do all of the driving (and eat all the gross stuff too) honestly I don't know what I will be able to contribute to the race (being on The Amazing Race is just an on going personal dream of mine we are not actually scheduled to be on... yet). 
Jacob's appointment went really well. I LOVED Jake's doctor. He was so sweet and I totally feel like I got my money's worth with him. Many a times I have left a doctor's office shaking my head as I pay my $30 co-pay thinking... wow that really doesn't seem worth it. This visit was nothing like that. The doctor spent a ton of time with Jake and I discussing the disease and going over treatment options. He was so kind to Jacob and made several comments to me that Jake seems "incredibly bright". I know Jacob is a special little boy but I love when others can see the same thing as I do. In fact when we were talking with Dr. Menter Jacob mentioned that he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. Dr. Menter told Jake that if he works hard and gets through all of the schooling he would hire Jake on with his research team and they would find a cure for psoriasis together. It was really cute. 
Basically Dr. Menter confirmed what I was already thinking when he said that Jake is beyond creams, lotions, and even UV therapy. The nature of Jacob's chronic and severe condition puts him in a category of needing systemic medication. Jake needs to treat his condition from the inside out. Unfortunately he is too young to be treated with some of the newer "biological" injections (the FDA has not approved them for the use of children with severe psoriasis yet but it should be approved this summer if all goes as planned). The doctor believes that the best treatment option for Jake is Methotrexate. Methotrexate is a chemotherapy drug that was FDA approved for treating severe psoriasis in the 1970's. Although it does have the potential for some pretty yucky side effects it has been found very successful. The doctor explained to me that Jacob's own immune system is fighting against him which is causing his skin cells to rapidly grow. This medication will greatly weaken his immune system until his skin is able to heal itself. After he is all healed up the doctor will have to find the appropriate amount of the medication to allow him to have a certain amount of a healthy immune system but suppress it enough so that it doesn't try and reject his own skin by growing skin cells too fast. We will all have to take huge precautions to keep Jake healthy. We will be doing everything we can to keep our house as healthy an environment as possible. He will need to use a mask in class once he is on the medication to try and avoid catching all the school cooties. If he does get sick then we need to immediately take him to his primary doctor and inform them that he is on this medication. Then Dr. Menter needs to decide if we take him off the medication until his body heals from whatever sickness he has caught. Jacob will need to have his blood drawn frequently to monitor all of his levels and to ensure he is still healthy enough for this treatment. He had blood work done on Thursday to get his base levels and once the doctor checks out the results he will take one test pill followed by more blood work and then after results are read he will start his full treatment. Jacob's one comment about it all was that he is excited to wear a mask at school. He is pretty sure that all of his friends will want one too. We will keep everyone updated with how it all goes. The doctor feels really confident that within six weeks he should have a huge improvement.
After the day at the clinic we went to the hotel and then went out to see the movie Horton Hears a Who. It was really cute the kids both seemed to enjoy it and I would recommend it to parents with older kids... I'm thinking five or older. Younger ones might get bored, much like the Dr. Seuss books it definitely has some life lessons in it so it's not just a funny cartoon. I think the kids liked the eating out the most. We were able to eat at a couple of places that I miss because we don't have them in Amarillo. Jake and Riley especially liked eating at Jack In The Box. They thought the toy in the kids meal was AWESOME (they each got an issue of Ranger Rick... remember that magazine??)
Jake of course has his own bed right next to Morgan's crib actually. This has become an on going problem with Jacob. He is such a snuggler he sneaks into Morgan's crib with his blanket and pillow then positions Morgan onto his pillow and under his blanket. My biggest problems with this is I'm not sure how much weight this crib can take and a couple of weeks ago Morgan woke up very angry because her big eight year old brother was squashing her. He of course slept through her cries and I had to wake him and help him out in out of her crib at one in the morning. He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES his sister Morgan so much but this has to stop. I think if I threaten to change roommates on him he might take me more seriously.
A good friend of mine is really sick so I told her I would take her four oldest children (ages 7-3) for part of the day so she could have a little easier day. I decided with a day like today we would have to go somewhere inside. I had a coupon for Chuck E. Cheese tokens so I made plans to meet a few of my friends there. All of us moms not only had our own children but we were all also watching someone else's kids too. The grand total was 17 kids between the 4 of us moms. Talk about birth control!!
Jeremy's sister Amanda and her husband David invited everyone to Albuquerque last weekend to meet their new twins and witness their blessing. We were lucky to only live about four hours away so of course we went. It was so fun to see the babies. I just love being around a new baby they are so sweet and innocent. We arrived late Friday night after working all day. Amanda and David were blessed to have many family members attend so things were kind of tight at their house. They were kind enough to make hotel arrangements for some of the family including us (staying in a hotel is WAY to exciting for little kids... big fights over the tiny notebook and pen). After a good nights rest we went over to Amanda's house for the big moment of meeting our newest niece and nephew. 
I would say that Cooper was perhaps the most excited about being re-acquainted with one of his cousins. I can't say I blame him Morgan is VERY kissable.
