identity theft

hahah..i think i got the last word... :)  today i got a chat msg from a cousin on fb. we haven't been particularly close, in fact, i haven't seen her in YEARS...but "she" got on live and started telling me how grateful she was that i responded. i had an inkling it wasn't her when she sd, "thank G_d you answered". afterall, she is religious and i don't think would take the Lord's name in vain. anyway...she proceeded to say that they were in the UK for vacation but had been mugged last night. her hubby was hurt (they sd her hubby's name) and all of their cash and credit cards had been stolen. would i PLEASE send 1500$ to her as soon as possible?!  i sd, "oh lisa!! i am so horribly sad for you!! please, take whatever you need....remember our barclay account?? well, it probably has around 12k in it and i trust you w/whatever you need. esp to take care of jordan". hahahah...idiots.

delta, utah

thought i'd give a little info abt my current hometown. but to really appreciate it, i have to backtrack....
born and raised in maplewood, new jersey i was exposed to all kinds of people from an early age. i really believe that nj is the melting pot of the melting pot, so friends and family were from different cultures, religions, etc. i "transitioned" to where i am now...if i had gone from jersey to delta i'd have hopped out. but like cooking a frog, things have to move gradually... on to byu in provo in 1985, then a jaunt to ricks college in rexburg, idaho, waynesboro, virginia, then folsom, california, colorado springs, colorado, soldotna, alaska, and down to logan utah. each of these places were home and wonderfully accepting and enlightening. most recently was north logan. i lived in the ideal location....(in fact, the home is still available for any potential buyers! :) )...walking distance to library, post office, grocery store, church, schools, bus stop, grandparents, etc. i loved, loved, LOVED the mobility we all had living in that house. and i was ACTIVE... active in the PTO, CERT organization, teaching at Red Cross, a webelos leader in the boy scouting program, involved in my church with various callings, even had a dating club for 16 yr olds and up.... but still, i could go to the walmart just a few blocks away and not see a dang person that i knew!! :(    enter eric:  every trip to delta we would go "somewhere"....quality grocery store, bank, SOMEWHERE...and allllways SOMEone would call out "ERIC!! HOW ARE YOU?"  ???? REALLY???? i knew i wanted to live here. everyone recognizing you and welcoming you and TALKING to you. contrast w/jersey...if you were walking down the street and came across someone walking towards you, you crossed paths looking at your feet. unless you were in a swimming suit and it was a perverted foreigner, then YOU looked at your feet and he catcalled and looked wherever perverts eyeballs don't belong...but i digress... :(     delta is a small town w/the benefits of friendliness only discovered in the crevices of american small towns. :)

however, along w/the friendliness, i would be remiss to leave out the fact that gossip spreads faster in smaller towns. and when the measles hit our family, imagine my surprise when i called the hospital and sd, "my husband has the measles.." and was interrupted w/ "ERIC?" i nearly swallowed my tongue! "HOW DID YOU KNOW?"  her curt response: "EVERYONE IN THE COUNTY KNOWS". wow. welcome to delta.

but it's good. it's very good. i thought when i moved here that i would never be able to go to the grocery store w/out putting on makeup, but i don't think that's the case anymore. since it tends to be windy and the air is so dirty (we live in the desert, mind you...not a lot of greenery to filter the sand and dirt), my hair is bushy and cotton candy-ish and covers my face most of the time. i probably look like a neanderthal as i bike ride around the community. no rumors have come back to me, so i'll keep on  keepin' on.... :)

life... mmmmm....

i haven't posted for a while, and went to "review" what i'd last wrote, only to discover NO POSTS. so, since i'm new to blogging, if i'm reiterating things i've already sd, forgive me and forge ahead...

a quick update:
eric and i were married on june 3rd in the logan temple. i should say that we were "SEALED", since that word means so much more than just being married. he IS my eternal companion, and i'm sooooooooooooo grateful. :) but as all good things are challenged by the adversary, our union was not w/out it's big downers.... we were married in the middle of our family's measles epidemic.  yes! hard to believe in the 21st century when diseases like measles are nearly extinct, but we did catch it, suffer and survive. i'll provide a few more details since that seems to be something that most people (newsmen included) have been interested in....

since nick is opposed to vaccinations, and he has the final medical say, the boys were unprotected. (alex, sammy and taylor). sammy was the first to "catch" it, and the first symptoms (exhaustion, body aches, followed by fever---basically flu-like symptoms) appeared on thursday night. he went to bed early, woke up fine, so he set off for school. when i saw him at the end-of-school-year musical performance, he was sitting down bcs "he didn't feel well". ..and as luck would have it, nick had the boys that wkend. i'm not sure what they did, but when sammy came back sunday night he went to bed w/out a fuss, proving he was still suffering from "something". on monday i brought alex to school and sammy and tay to nick's (as was the usual routine when nick was in town). later that day i rec'd an email from nick telling me that sammy had the chicken pox. when he came home that night, i saw that the spots were not blistery and bubbly like the pox, nor were they itching. i looked online and found a comparable photo describing MEASLES!! so that was the first. i called the health dept after learning that it is highly contagious and no doctor in town wants it in their waiting room. they sent a nurse over who "suspected", but couldn't confirm or deny. they also put our family on "voluntary quarantine".  no end of year parties for alex. it was really hard for him, bcs he had a concert and a pool party and he didn't feel sick at all. :(  then family started to show up for our wedding. rachel and carl were the first to come. they stayed at our house. it was really fun until the blood results came back positive for measles and the health dept suggested they leave our house. even though they had all been vaccinated. "just to be safe". :( incidentally, by the time they had positively diagnosed it, sammy was out of the contagious period. he had been miserable. pretty much laying in bed w/no energy and just drinking a lot of water. he ended up in the hospital when nick thought it wasn't the measles, but an allergic reaction instead. they iv'd him, and that helped perk him up a bit. poor boy. :(  abt two days before the wedding (if my memory serves me correctly) alex came down w/the spots. he was as miserable and sammy had been. however at this point, sammy was better and able to hang out w/cousins (bendy's kids had arrived, and so had dathy's). taylor was still voluntarily quarantined, and wisely so, for his spots appeared on thursday night. the eve of our wedding. after our ceremony we had a small reception at mom and dad's. both eric and i went back and forth between houses checking on the two sickies :(. they were pretty miserable, including diarrhea and vomiting. by saturday night i was feeling a little "under the weather". i figured it was exhaustion from the move, marriage, tending to sick kids, entertaining out of state family, etc. so i went to church on sunday. came home and discovered a fever and a couple of pimply looking spots. sure enough, i woke up the monday after our wedding, right in the middle of our "honeymoon" to the measles. my case was much less severe, mainly centering around my face and mouth, but it was emotionally devastating as i was sequestered from family for the remainder of their time there. it also delayed our move to delta by two days. but finally, on june 10th, eric's b'day and one week after our marriage, we loaded up the uhaul and headed south. :) finally past the "hump", we were prepared to start our life together. little did we know that eric would come down w/flu-like symptoms by tuesday afternoon. his spots didn't appear until thursday, but he had all of the symptoms so we treated him as if he were diagnosed w/the measles. unfortunately it was too late. the power plant where he works was notified, and they went overboard. they sent home everyone who didn't have evidence of a booster shot. they required them to either GET boosters (which eric had done, incidentally) or not return until the contagion period had ended. the whole episode hit the news. reports of a "delta man who returned home from a honeymoon overseas" flooded the tv and newspapers. what a warm welcome to delta. poor eric was so miserable. between chills and sweats and diarrhea and dry heaving, he became severely dehydrated. i had given him every medicine known to man in an attempt to alleviate some of his suffering, but it was all to no avail. :(  finally it culminated on him receiving two iv's IN THE PARKING LOT OF THE HOSPITAL (bcs they wouldn't allow him in for fear of contaminating the place) to finally turn things around. but things didn't get better right away.... he was inflicted w/a horrible tooth infection that caused his jaw and side of his face to swell up and gave him horrific pain. it was the hardest thing i had to go through----watching him suffer and unable to help him. i dont' want to make light of anything, but i got a "taste" of what our father in heaven must have felt when HIS Son suffered and He was unable to help. it's the most heart-wrenching feeling. truly.

time has passed. it is now the 18th of july. our trials have moved from measles to custody battle with nick over whether he will allow the boys to move to delta. (he originally sd it was fine as long as his child support was reduced, but changed that a little more than a month before our wedding)

life has never been sweeter. and life has never been more tragic. we are prayerful that the boys will be able to permanently join our household, but in the meantime we are on a summer schedule which allows nick to have the boys in alaska for the next 3 wks. i have learned that moms are not supposed to be without their kids. it's just not natural. it's like tying your ankles together and having to hop. just not as much fun. :(

and now that i've brought you up-to-date, i'll close for now and continue later... :) life..., huh?