Tympanomastoidectomy

Can you say that three times fast? That means eardrum replacement and cleaning out of your tumor in your mastoid. Here is today's patient. He did really well. I wish I could post a video of how grateful Jens was to the nurses. Every 5 minutes he'd say "Thank you so much." It was cute. He repeated twice that he was mad that "they didn't tell him when they were doing the surgery"...once right when he got out and then a couple minutes later. It was kinda funny... Here is the patient.

Masquerade

The Masquerade Ball is a Spanish Fork dance. Ummm...but Jens goes to Provo High....you say. His cousins who recently moved to Spanish from Arvada Colorado, Miquel and Erica brought over a huge box of fish crackers with something written on the box.

That's it...now what?!

He got a bowl and poured all the fishies in and found some little pieces of paper that had words on them. He had to put the words in order.

In case you can't read it it says..."Out of all the fish in the sea, I want you to go to Masquerade with me" All the bottom words were just to throw him off. It was quite tricky at first. A couple days earlier Jens was invited over to their house to "get to know Rachael". They did know each other. It wasn't a blind date.

This is how Jens answered: He got a huge bag of dum dum suckers and put a ton of the suckers in a ziplock baggie and wrote on some paper I'd be a dum dum not to go to Masquerade with you. He cut the paper in puzzle pieces and put those into an envelope and tucked it into the bag of suckers.

The costume assignment for this group was Disney characters...Jens and Rachael were Hercules and Meg.

Here are the dance pictures; November 1. He was to be at Erica and Miquels house by 5. I went too (of course) not only to take pictures but to be with Sheryl my SIL. It was so fun...I'm so glad I went. We found a great costume which I embellished all the leather looking stuff and sewed the silver cape on.



Front row: Miquel and Derek (Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl) Ashley and Shad (Tinkerbell and Peter Pan) Back Row: Eric and Ashley (Prince Charming and Cinderella) Erica and Jeff (Maid Marion and Robin Hood) Rachael and Jens (Meg and Hercules)
Cousins Miquel, Erica, Ashley all holding Jens
After pictures they went in and had a wonderful dinner...the choices were spaghetti and meatballs OR chicken alfredo serves with cesar salad, breadsticks and a lovely beverage. Miquel and Erica made the main courses while Ashley and Rachael made the breadsticks. Cheesecake for dessert. Each wrist was attached to the wrist that was sitting next to you. That was a really fun part to watch and video. After the dinner they played some outside games and went inside to watch Sixth Sense then went to the dance. Came home before the dance ended to finish the movie and have dessert. Fun fun times!
Just in case you're wondering...most of the girls knew they would be eating with some difficulty so they changed their clothes and then changed back right before the dance.

All the boys Eric, Jeff, Shad, Jens, and DerekAll the girls: Ashley, Miquel, Erica, Rachael, and Ashley

I know prayer works...by Jens

This story was requested when we learned about Julia's prayer story...

When Jens was around 8-9 years old he found a bird out in the park across the street from our house. He was always finding lost birdies and wanting to take care of them. We had had in the past several cockatiels and knew how to take care of those birds. All wild birds are the same aren't they? On this particular day he came home with a baby birdie who couldn't fly very well. Knowing how to take of birds he knew right what to do. He got out our old cage and put some bedding on the bottom of the cage and filled the food dish up with bird seed. He wasn't eating at all and I suggested that maybe he didn't like seed and was only accustomed to worms and bugs and he wouldn't do very well with us taking care of him. As much as I love having birds around and as much as he was looking forward to taking care of the birdie he reluctantly took the bird back over to the park. I went about my business at home while he took the bird back to the park. Around an hour later he came home with tears in his eyes. I asked if something had happened to the birdie. He told me that he didn't know where to put the bird. If he put it on the ground some animal might get him...if he put him in the tree he might not know how to fly away should a predator come. He was lost in knowing what to do. So he took the little helpless birdie and went and said a prayer and asked where he should take him in order for him to be safe and be able to live. He thought about just putting the bird just in the crook of the tree where it wouldn't be too far for the bird to fall yet away from any walking animals. He felt good about his decision and decided to leave him there. But leaving the helpless bird was very hard for Jens He connects well with animals and loves veterinary sciences. For me though, it was the sweetest most caring sentiment ever. For him to feel so powerful about this little birdie to ask Heavenly Father where to leave the bird, I was immensely touched. We talked about how the bird would know how to feed himself and that he made the right decision.