Heart Update

 Another hospital visit for me on Tuesday.

Building #2.

Cardiac Rhythm Center.

I got all dressed up for the occasion, as you can see!

Echo.

Stress Test.

Echo.

Appointment.

Good news: it is not a coronary artery issue.

Bad news: we still do not know what is wrong with my poor heart.

Action plan: I am still getting fit to the heart monitor holster on Saturday. I see my cardiologist in a month. I am going to a take a medicine to see if it might help with some anatomy issues - my esophagus may be putting pressure on my heart.

On the way back from the hospital, my car overheated.

I was not so happy about this.

I had not yet had a Diet Coke.

Braxton met me at home and traded me cars so that I could get to work.

He took it to the shop.

Leaking hose (intake, I think... for coolant).

He filled it twice with coolant.

I drove it to work and my guys did "others duties as assigned" for me.

I'm a spoiled, rotten brat.

Thanks, P, for making sure I would be taken care of when you got your angel wings.

So, we carry on.

Eagle

And, it's done.

Kaydon did it.

He told me he probably wouldn't do it over again.

But, he did it.

I'm so proud of you KK!!!

Missionary Moment - Chile Vina Del Mar

Buenos días!

Good morning everyone! I hope that last week was an awesome week for all of you! It was a pretty interesting week for us down here in Chile. But we are doing good now. We had the transfers this week and nothing changed other than who is going to be in my district. Elder Foster will have 6 months in this sector by the time we have the next transfer. Our zone leader is changing too, and you will never guess who it is! (For you T) Elder Trainor! If you know anything about him then you already know but if you don't then don't worry everything is fine...I hope.

So update on me. My back is pretty much destroyed. If you all remember I hurt my back pretty good before the mission and have had some pains here and there during the mission but now it has gotten pretty bad. They have me with a back brace until Wednesday and if the pain doesn't die down then I need to go to the doctor to get x rays and stuff like that. I am not sure what is up with it but I hope that everything will be okay!

Being the district leader here, I have the opportunity to interview people for their baptisms and one of the interviews that I did the girl asked me if I would be the one to baptize her so that is what we did! We had three elders in white that day and a very happy family. My district is changing a little bit which kind of sucks but I guess we will see how that goes. I loved that last district and we cant have cool little sleepovers with pizza or just hang out every p day. Cool guys, best of luck to the elders who are leaving this change!

That is about it on my side. We are continuing to work hard and trying to survive in the day to day heat! I love you all and I will talk to you all soon!

Elder Jorgensen

Shine On

I really am a bat-shiz crazy diamond.

And, I am shining on until that diamond can't shine no more.

Last night, I went to get my finger nails painted at my favorite place.

Those are my people, I tell ya!

Hugs every time.

Smiles every time.

Refusing to let me pay every time.

Sitting me in the massage chair for no good reason, other than to force me to relax and be spoiled for a minute every time.

It was just what I needed to shine on for the rest of the night.

Sometimes I wake up ready to be a dang warrior.

A bat-shiz crazy warrior.

Ready to conquer everything and everyone in my path.

I feel the energy that I need to get through my nine hour work day, then work some more after that, then workout, then make meals, then clean, then meditate, then whatever else I need to do.

And sometimes I wake up, longing for a Diet Coke and a quiet day.

And realizing that both are normal and okay and perfectly amazing is making me shine brighter!

This morning, I went in to ask Kaydon for fashion advice.

Is that not the coolest?
I have always gone to my boys to ask if I look okay.

They are very honest with me.

Before he left, he came into my room.

Looked at my outfit again.

And told me to roll my pants up.

Then left.

And, I surely did do that!

My thoughts on my next tattoo...

In small, dainty letters just underneath my existing tattoo, which is the Tibetan symbol for "Believe."

We'll see.

But regardless, I still rise.

Every single day.

T Time

Remember that New Year's Decision I made?

We had our first date on Saturday!

Every other month, I am making room for T Time!!

And, even more importantly - T is making time for me!

This should not come as a surprise to anyone.

This girl has given up segments of her very busy life for me repeatedly.

Physically, emotionally, spiritually...

This girl knows EVERYthing about me.

And she loves me anyways.

Did you know that T and I went to high school together?
We sat next to each other at our graduation.

We weren't friends in high school.

We didn't really know each other.

But after high school, we both got jobs at Zions Bank.

And we ended up working in the same branch.

Then, she moved to London.

She would come back and visit and bring me REAL Cadbury candy.

Then, she moved back to Utah.

We became super close.

I could not love this girl more.

She is truly a gift from God.

I could not do this life without her!

So, Saturday we met in Provo.

We did a float.

We have done this before, but I feel the second time was even better because we knew what to expect.

It is so relaxing!

Then we did the oxygen bar - 10 minutes of oxygen.

It's really good to just restore a healthy amount of oxygen to our bodies - our blood stream and our brains.

Then, it was eating time.

PS Food is my love language!!!

We had us some R&R Barbecue.

Mama LOVES me some meat!!

Whilst eating our meat and potatoes, there was an engagement photo shoot outside the window of the restaurant.

We may or may not have photo bombed the photo shoot, then laughed and laughed about it!

 You know, like normal 42 year old mothers of four children each...

We walked down the way and got us some gourmet cookies - warmed up and all.

Then hugs and home.

I can't wait for my T Time in March - and this time, she's in charge of deciding what we do!!

He's Kind of a Big Deal

Braxton was nervous about having to learn an entirely different trade when he started at Jiffy Lube.

I'd say he's doing just fine!
He's kind of a big deal!!

Colton Does Island Park

Colton got home last night from his fun vacation to Island Park.

He went with his best friend, Aiden, and Aiden's family.

I LOVE hearing Colton talk about memories of fun things.

He described each bedroom and bathroom to me.

They got to see lots of animals.

They got to play lots of pool.

They got to play a lot out in the snow.

He had the best time.

I was especially grateful to have all of my boys back under my roof last night!

I am so grateful to the people in our lives to love my children and include them in fun activities.

But, I am always so thankful when they are back home with me!

Geo

Meet Geo.

I don't know if Geo is a boy or girl.

I didn't ask Braxton.

But, Braxton did let me hold Geo.

He cautioned me not to "squeeze."
Thanks, Brax.

Geo seemed content.

Miss Birdie sent over some instructions for Geo.

Thank goodness we have her now that we have two reptiles in the house.

And a dumb dog.

I say "dumb" with love. 

Ish.

Welcome to the Zoo, Geo.

My Girl

This child.

This being.

This carnival ride that goes off the tracks not once, but twice, and explodes into a bubble machine of tornado-sized winds all encompassed in this little body and soul that we call Queen V.

This is my person.

I remember holding her on my hip for the first time and seriously never wanting to put her down.

This little mini-me of mine is all of me in a little, sassy, feisty, highly-emotional, naughty beyond words child.

This is my person.

She is SO naughty, People.

I taught her how to say, "What's up?"

"Chicken BUTT!"

Her daddy was none too happy.

So, we said over and over and over and over.

Auntie Heidi loves to give her sugar and caffeine, just to increase the chances of goodness!

When her mama posted this, it was everything!

I have boys for a reason.

I tell people this every day.

I would not have known what to do with a girl!

BUT, if I would have had a daughter - it would have been her.

However, God knew better!!!

Licking Fish

Colton got to go with Aunt Carrie and the babes to the Aquarium on Monday.

He sent me this pictures.

Then, he told me ALL about it when he got home.

He said that Asher licked one of the fish.

Just like he licked the glass that separated him from some of the fish.

I LOVE this about AshMan.

That is how he experiences his world.

And, experiencing his world is his only job right now!

Anson, Colton said, love splashing the water.

And the escalator outside of the aquarium.

Colton said the sting rays were super cool, and the part where Asher licked the fish.

I am so grateful that we live close to the babes and that we get to spend time with them!

I am also so thankful for Aunt Carrie who takes Colton along on adventures!!

Missionary Moment - Chile Vina Del Mar Mission

I would just like to add a few things that he told me over the phone!!
First, a young man in the ward - who is preparing to serve his mission - was shot in the face with a bb gun last week. Not awesome. Second, he told me about an experience they had with a blessing last week. They both basically felt like they did an exorcism. They said that there was clearly an evil spirit there. As he gave the blessing - which he doesn't remember one word of - an angelic spirit came in and the evil spirit left. He said that he has given a lot of blessings - never one like that!


What's kickin boys and girls! We have had an awesome couple of weeks working and enjoying ourselves as well as we have been enjoying Christmas and the New Year! Lots of stories and probably not enough time to tell them all but I think I have a couple that you might get a kick out of.

Lets see, the first story can be about how we are basically raising a bird on our own. That's right call us Ma and Pa! We have a small balcony as part of our apartment and one day I wanted to check out the stuff that the Elders had out back there from the past exchanges. And it just so happened that we found a mama bird with just one egg. As soon as I touched the door the bird flew away and wouldn't come back until we got home at the end of the day. Well, the bird ended up hatching and then the mom left. No idea why. So my very large, football build, a little bit slow on the intelligence side says to me, "I wonder if it wants a cup of water". I didn't say anything back to him because I thought he was just joking. But then he goes and gets a plastic cup fills it up halfway with water and puts the cup out by the bird...what? So the bird is now a little bigger, and we have no idea what happened to the mom. And, if you were wondering, no the bird still hasn't drank the cup of water!

The second story has to do with a newish member family that we wanted to go and visit one day. Elder Foster had met them before but I had no idea who they were so I said yeah let's go give em a visit. We get there and the super nice mom lets us in and from that point we start playing with their kids and talking with them. But then the dad comes in, he looks a little tired, and instantly I was thinking to myself the casual missionary thought, "here we go again". He sits down and I start talking to him just kind of the normal get to know you questions. and then I asked how long they have been members of the church. The dad went ecstatic and got super upset at us for interrupting their family time and said that we can come by only if we call first and said that we can come back another day(nice way of saying that he kicked us out of the house). Probably the first time that I got kicked out of a house of a member but hey, a first time for everything!

There are a couple stories for all of you. We are doing really awesome down here and we continue to see miracles every day! I love you all and I hope that all of you have a wonderful rest of your week and I will talk to you all soon!

Elder Jorgensen 

Gifts

When I was released from IMC after the stroke,

I was put in Rand's hands!

I went home to his house until I was released to go home to my own house with my babes.

Part of our daily routine was him setting me up with a coloring book and markers.

It was so good for my brain and coloring is my thing.

However, I have a bit of OCD when it comes to coloring.

I had colored outside of the lines on this particular page, so after only coloring a couple of areas I threw it away.

Without me knowing, Rand pulled it out of the garbage..

And he finished coloring it.

It took him two years because he only colors a little at a time.

He wrote on the back, "Someone's trash is always someone's treasure."

And, he gave it to me last weekend.

I cried.

A lot.

Braxton saw it and cried, too.

He is going to frame it for me.

I'll forever treasure this piece of paper.

Kaydon made me another cutting board.

It is concrete.

He carved in it this sweet message.

I cried.

I cry a lot, People!!!

It's fine!!

I will forever and ever treasure the sweet note carved into this forever cutting board!

Fun Surprise

Kaydon and Colton had a youth activity at the Ogden Ice Sheet last night.

I've got to get there and work on my moves...

Anywho, Colton texted me:

"Mommy! We had the best surprise when we got here!"

Then he sent me this picture.

These two were inseparable for YEARS.

Colton was Brooklyn's playmate.

Jackson and Braxton were here protectors.

Kaydon was the creative, finding activities to do, teaching ninja moves brothers!

Mom fed, bathed, rocked, comforted, did hair, all of that stuff.

I love that they had this surprise last night!

When You Know, You Know

T and I have a special relationship.

We often face-time-ish with Facebook whilst on the toilet in our respective homes.

In our G's.

We often talk about pooping and peeing and puking.

Like, way more than what would be considered appropriate.

That "appropriate" word pretty much goes out the door with the two of us!

We send each other super inappropriate memes and GIF's.

And then we both laugh so hard that we usually have to go to the toilet.

We talk about our children - the good, the bad, the hysterical, the ugly, the sweet, the not-so-sweet...

We tell each other we love each other.

We root for each other's rise.

And, in case you're wondering - we also send each other very inspirational, spiritual memes and GIF's.

Balance, People. Balance.

I love this girl with my whole entire heart!

She's on my boy's passport applications as their emergency contact. "Auntie."

She sends my boys gifts.

I probably applaud her girls' naughtiness a little too much!

When you know, you know... and I have zero doubt that Heavenly Father made her just for me!

One of my New Year's Decisions is that every other month, I am having a T date.

Yup, I am driving to freaking Tokyo every other month.

Our first date day will be the 18th.

Eating and Floating and guaranteed laughing and probably crying... but a whole lot of love will be there.

I can't wait for my T times this year!

Love you to the eternities, my T!!

Jack & Foster

These two are having the time of their lives in their area.

Jackson told me yesterday, "Ma! I found a Subway. I had a macadamia nut cookie."

They also have a McDonald's.

AND, they went bowling.

They are now trying to find a time for the zone to go on a go-carting adventure.

Living their best lives.

Except they don't have hot water.

AND, Foster is a Green Bay Packers fan...

Which is an issue that this mama will have a hard time getting over.

Jackson loves the other missionaries in the zone.

They get along really well and they are all working really hard.

Plus, it's currently in the mid 70's there.

I'm not sure that I would be too unhappy about that either.

I'm loving that my boy is happy.

And that he is feeling the joy of missionary work.

And that he loves his companion.

And that he loves His Savior.

Still Babies to Me

Yes, they are getting big.

Yes, they are far more independent.

Yes, they are going to be three this year.

But, to this Auntie... they are still babies.

They still like to run around on Auntie's back.

They still like to crawl on my legs and have me flip them up and around and land them in some crazy-cool Auntie gymnastics-ish moves.

They still like to hold my hand and walk me around.

And, I still love all of it!

It always just melts my heart, too, when Anson stands in the window sill to watch Auntie leave.