Carey Family

Archives for May 2011

Thanks to great teachers!

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I read this awesome post by Ali Edwards about her experience at a school conference for her autistic son.  She looked around the table at all the great people who work together to make her son feel successful and was so very grateful for their dedication and hard work.  My sons have left public education and are wending their way through higher ed now but I think back to all the great K-12 teachers they had in Florida and Utah who helped them on their way.  Teachers who work hard, go the extra mile and really care about students.

Thanks!

Sitting on Santa’s lap…over time

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I have taken pictures of people sitting on Santa’s lap at the Carey Christmas party for the last several years and thought it would be fun to see how we’ve changed through the years.  So here are some photos, organized by family.

See us sit on Santa’s lap.  See us have fun.  See us get older.

Disclaimer: I thought I snapped feverishly at every party and got every child every year.  But when I gathered up all the pictures I found some people are missing.  I can’t explain this, so nobody should infer anything or take this personally.  There’s one year I don’t even have pictures of both my own children.  I can’t explain this, either.  If you have other shots you’d like me to include for posterity, send them along and I’ll update this post!

Click on a photo to see them all in a gallery by family.

Scott & Sue’s family

Phil & Janice’s family

Paul & Michelle’s family

Brent & Teresa’s family

Mark & Sonja’s family

Ildar & Christine’s family

April updates from Elder Brian

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April 5, 2011
To get right to the chase…I am ill.  Very ill.  I have been sick for two weeks and the doctor came over a week and a half ago and said that it was a bacterial infection so I was on Augmentin but then I was getting worse.  It got to the point that I had absolutely no energy to do anything.  My throat is SO sore, and I have incredible headaches, I am really weak, and I have these big lumps on my neck.  So the doctor in our mission came over to the house yesterday and he is 99% sure that I have mono.  But the only way to for sure know is to get bloodwork done, so this morning we went up to Laguna Beach to the hospital to get the work done.  We hung around to get the results back for one of the tests and that is what it is looking to be, but the definitive one, we haven’t got results back from yet.  If it is mono, it is going to knock me out for 6 weeks – 3 months. Disclaimer:  None of this is definite. But a little more info about mono, it is unknown how it is contracted, and there is not a cure.  Basically, you just have to wait it out.  I have been taking like 2-3 hour naps every day because I am so exhausted, and I don’t have the energy to do anything.  If this all plays out the way it is looking like it is, I am not exactly sure what they are going to do with me, if they are going to leave me still as zone leader, or what, but it will be interesting to see.  So that is my life right now, I just sleep all the time and can’t swallow.  The lumps on my neck are all severely swollen lymph nodes that are trying to fight off the infection.

(A call home from the Mission President the next day confirmed that he has a severe case of mono with an enlarged spleen).

April 12, 2011
Well, this week has been…fun.  Haha, not really, it has sucked, but I am doing better.  So my week was pretty much just me sleeping in bed, and doing stuff and being in members houses. My throat is fine now, I can swallow and everything and I am doing good.  Kind of how I am is that I sleep and then I wake up and I have a ton of energy and then that energy wears off quick and then in 3-4 hours I am tired again.  But, each day I feel that I am improving, and so now I am trying to time my naps so that I can minimize the time that I am sleeping and maximize the time when I am awake.
Wednesday:  I get a call from President saying that he had left a message with you and that if I were to do ANY work, that he would send me home just because he did not want to play around with my health.  So that was kind of discouraging, especially the mandate to stay at home for an entire week!  BAH!  So that brings us to today. Today is the last day of my confinement, (I think).

April 19, 2011
OK, so I am continuing to do better.  I kind of plateaued, but I am doing well.  I still get tired, but now I can wake up and make it through most of the day.  I only have to take one nap at about 3-5.  That is when my energy really crashes.
Miercoles:  I went over to [a member home] and spent the afternoon  sleeping there, and then we went over to our President’s interviews.  We talked about things, and he feels VERY strong that I need to stay.  And so do I.  Apparently Mission Medical recommended that I go home a week or so ago, but he wanted to do everything so that I could stay, and so, here I am still here and doing better.  So the terms were that I could only go to appointments and then besides that I needed to be sleeping.  Thanks for everything, I am so grateful for all of your prayers/fasting/support.  I am happy that I am staying for now, and I hope I continue to do better.

April 25, 2011
For me, I am doing better each week.  This marks 5 weeks of being sick, and I am for sure getting tired of it.  Some days are better than others, and I am still just getting headaches and feeling really tired.  But I feel like I am making improvements and doing better. It has just been a REALLY slow process and I feel like I have been sick for sooo long.  But yeah, I am still taking it easy for the most part and trying to get better. I am trying to gain some weight back, because I lost some, so I have been drinking a lot of protein shakes to try and get some weight, and it seems to be working.