Highlights From The Creekside Ward Variety Show

Creekside Bishopric Synchronized Swimteam

As you can see, they were heavily influenced by Swan Lake, Star Wars, and Titanic. And the piece de resistance:

The Young Women did a flash mob.

This is Brother Filimaua. He's a Samoan fire dancer. Since he couldn't have a real fire in the chapel, he had to substitute with black lights and white fabric. Sadie was mesmerized. I am pushing to have an outdoor Luau so that we can see him twirl real fire and eat delicious Polynesian food. I've always thought Southern people and Polynesians have a lot in common: We both like to hug. We are both loud. And we both make good barbecue.

At the Ward Variety Show every year, our friend Tom Payne writes a song for his Young Men. (He's the Young Men's President.) He's very creative. I love his songs. And Joy said it only took him one night to write this one. It made me laugh until I cried.

Happy 13th Birthday Skyler!

Skyler's first ball game was on her birthday this year, so we just had a small celebration that night at supper. (We had lunch at Olive Garden on the Saturday before.) She loves the movie Tangled, so that was our theme. Also, the girls like to write signs for each other on their birthdays. Bryant decided he would make a sign for Skyler this time. I'm sure you can tell which one is his. Then, on Friday night, some of her close friends in Gilbert had a surprise party for her! She had a great time.

Dear Sadie,

You are going to nursery next week at church! You'll be 18 months old on September 23rd. You're getting into everything. You wrote all over my mirror with deodarant and then you ate the deodarant. Saturday you rubbed lip gloss all in your hair. You are one messy child. You got your 15 month shots last week. It hurt your feelings so bad. You blow on all your food, even ice cream and fruit snacks. Your four two year molars are almost completely through...finally! You call every light fixture "moon." Everyone kept wondering what was happening to all of the silverware. It seemed like every time we went to get a untensil, there weren't any. Then daddy caught you taking them out of the dishwasher and throwing them straight into the trash. I wonder what else you have thrown away.

Congratulations, Skyler!

Skyler found out today that she made the A Volleyball Team at her school!

Update: Skyler's team had a great first week. They won both their games! (Skyler's number 23.)

Introducing the newest member of the Bryant Slade family-

SHELDON!!!

We love this little guy because:

He's so sweet. He never even attempts to bite any of us. I can honestly say he's the only turtle I've ever seen that doesn't snap. And believe me, I've seen a lot of turtles. I'm always picking up turtles at home in Alabama.

He gets so excited when he sees you're about to feed him. He splashes and swims around trying to get your attention.

When you pick him up, he keeps moving his legs like he's a wind-up toy...cutest thing ever! And he's actually very fast. When we put him outside on the ground, he scoots all over the place.

Eagar Days

We made a quick overnight trip to Eagar to visit Bryant's grandparents for Eagar Days. It was nice to get out of the heat for a short time. We drove to Nutrioso and saw old family sites and checked out the fire damage. Because of the fire, they were also having problems with mud slides and flooding. That part was sad, but we had a great time anyway. We found some elk and pulled over onto the side of the road to take pictures. Sadie, of course, called them "doggies." Every animal is a doggy to her. Grandpa Keith got Skyler and Sibley marshmallow guns, so they had a blast with those.

We snapped some pictures of the old Nutrioso post office while we were there. Bryant's great grandparents, the Lees, ran that post office. By the way, Nutrioso is Spanish for "beaver-bear." I can see why they named it that because there are beaver-bears everywhere!

Bryant's Grannie and Papa Slade are 88 years old. We usually go to Eagar for Papa's birthday on the 4th of July, but we couldn't this year because of the fire. Papa is still just as quick-witted as ever and he makes me laugh with his smart-elic comments. Bryant inherited his Papa's gift of children charming. When we first got there, Sadie would have nothing to do with him, but by the time we left he had her eating out of his hand. She had warmed right up to Grannie too.

The highlight of my trip to Grannie and Papa's is always the same thing for me, this coatrack that one of Bryant's relatives made in the late 80's, complete with pictures of all of the grandchildren. It never fails, I laugh until I cry when I see these pictures. I wanted to give y'all just a small sample...(Hope I don't get in trouble for putting one of Bryant on here in his "awkward stage." Even more so, I hope he doesn't pay me back by putting a fat picture of me on here.)

Skyler's Talk

Skyler was asked to be a youth speaker in Sacrament Meeting a few weeks ago and talk about her experience as an extra in 17 Miracles and how it increased her appreciation for the pioneers. We knew she would be nervous, so we waited until the Saturday before she was to talk to tell her about it. (We didn't want her to have to worry about it while she was in Alabama.) Well, she got right to work and she wrote a great talk (with Bryant and I helping.) Come Sunday morning, she had gone over the talk several times and she was ready. She told me she had a stomach ache, though, but we just wrote it off as nerves.

So, we got to church and she went and sat on the stand. It came her turn to talk and she went to the pulpit and began. She didn't look good at all. She looked pale and her voice was so weak. After a few paragraphs, she turned and said some things to the bishop. I was thinking she probably felt like she was going to faint. The bishop came to the stand and said that Skyler wasn't feeling well and that we would hear from someone else while Skyler gathered her thoughts.

Meanwhile, Skyler came down off the stand and quickly exited the chapel. I followed closely behind her. By the time I got out to the lobby, she was puking her guts out in the lobby trash can. I took the baby to Bryant while Skyler disposed of her vomit trash bag, bless her heart. I took her home and went back to let the bishop know she wouldn't be back.

Poor Skyler continued to throw up all afternoon. And she was so embarrassed that she just sobbed and sobbed. She had evidently picked up a virus while in Alabama. She has gotten a lot of positive feedback about her talk and people are encouraging her to finish it so that they can hear the rest of it.

Bishop Riffey came by the house a couple of days later and delivered a package to Skyler. He had a gift bag, which he called a "barf bag," and in it were Pepto Bismol for her stomach ache, gum for her barf breath, and a cold pack for her fever. We got a good kick out of that. [He is such a good bishop.] We are hoping she will get up the nerve to finish her talk soon. We are very proud that she even tried, considering how sick she was.

The Girls' Wetumpka Pictures

Before the girls left Wetumpka, they asked Grandmama to take them around town so that they could snap some pictures. Daddy loaned them his camera. I think these are great! I especially love the two of the bridge and the two at the old courthouse. And of course I love the one of my dear, sweet mother and the one of my beautiful sister.

The picture at the pharmacy is with our family pharmacist, Barney. He has an old-fashioned pharmacy with all kinds of old-timey remedies and cures. Bryant use to work across the street from the pharmacy, and when the girls would go visit him at work they would go to the pharmacy and get a Yoo-Hoo, so that's what those pictures are about...good memories for them.

News

I went to a new doctor today...yes, another doctor. I love him. He listened to me and Bryant for over an hour. Then, he hugged me. He got copies of all of my tests and he says he is going to study my case and figure me out. His name is Dr. Holmes, so he said he is known for solving mysteries. Anyway, he told me that my ovaries can not be the only problem. Some of the hormones that my body is overproducing, namely DHEA, cortisol, and Androstene, are only made in the adrenal glands, so there has to be something wrong with my adrenal glands and my ovaries are responding to that. It won't be the quick fix I was hoping for, but what else is new?

My pain has been considerably lessened by a new drug I started a couple of weeks ago. Turns out I have IBS and Splenic Flexure Syndrome (due to the hormones, I'm sure). The IBS I can easily handle, but the Splenic Flexure Syndrome is very debilitating. It causes so much left flank pain and sometimes radiates around to your chest and shoulders. Many people think they are having a heart attack with Splenic Flexure Syndrome. I have honestly thought that several times, but my mother bought me an electric blood pressure monitor a few months ago, so I would check my blood pressure and see that I wasn't in real danger and didn't need to go to the hospital.

So one of my gastroenterologists put me on an antispasmic drug and I thought, "Hey, it's worth a try." I took it the first night and I woke up at 5:00 the next morning and my side didn't hurt for the first time in three and a half years! I was so excited that I couldn't go back to sleep! So now I just have to concentrate on my seemingly neverending search for the root cause.