Happy Birthday

Today is my sister in law Nikki's birthday. Hooray :). Nikki is a wonderful mother of 4 fun kids. She loves spending time with her family and teaching her kids new things. She is a English major and is hoping to be a published author one day. SO here's to you Nikki on your happy day... :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Musical Weekend

This past weekend was full of music, fun and surprises. :) First it was James' birthday and the whole family had pitched in to get him Rockband. Well after a lot of searching Mom Armstrong couldn't find it, but she was at Walmart and one of the workers was telling her that they weren't going to have them in for awhile but they had the Beatles Rockband and it was on sale. After much debating she grabbed that one but when she went to check out it rung up for $100 more than what the guy and the sign said. After going through the motions and talking to the right people she was able to walk out with Beatles Rockband for the price that was quoted her. (I just thought that was a fun story :p) So after weeks of hiding in Mom's closet the day finally came. James and I got home from work and After going through the motions of what we usually do when we get home Mom and Dad showed up and we started getting food ready. Mom told James that he could open his present when I say he can. :p So I told him that he could go ahead. He said he thought he knew what it was anyway, but we assured him that he was going to be surprised....he was. :p

(The goofy smile is because his picture happy wife made him pose in front of his new toy. :p) So after a inward debate about wanting to go set up his new game but not wanting to neglect Mom and Dad by not socializing we finally convinced him to go set it up while we finished dinner. Both dinner and the game were done at the same time and just in time for Nikki and the kids to show up...the rest of the night was music,food, and stepping away from the game long enough to sing happy birthday and have cake and ice cream. :) We had such a great time. A big Thank you to the family for the present and for coming over to spend a fun evening rocking out. :)

Then on Sat James had to go and teach his class, so while he was gone I did some deep cleaning of the house. When he got home it was more Rockband for awhile and we got to test out his Band Hero that he got for Christmas but was never able to play because we didn't have any instruments. Then it was showers and getting ready for a fun date night. We did dinner and stayed home and watched Surf's Up...which we were very surprised by...it was really a good movie. Because Fri was go go go and we knew Sunday was going to be the same. It was nice to have a quiet evening at home with each other. Sunday we had dinner over at our house. So after church we waited. :p Mom and Dad were the first to show up and then everyone else. Again the night consisted of food, music and fun...and a surprise visit from the Elders Quorum president. He was shocked to see so many people in our little house as well as the music and game playing. :) He joked and said "Wow who's party is it?" and was surprised when we answered that we were celebrating both Nikki and James'. It was a lot of fun. Again thanks to the family. :) After people started to leave and it started to thin out till James and I found ourselves alone, we decided to play a couple more songs and then off to bed. As we were going around turning things off and putting stuff away I received a weird call on my phone from a 00012345 number. At first I wasn't going to answer it Then I decided to and heard a weird little mans voice on the other line saying he was looking for a Kristene Earl...Since I haven't been called Kristene Earl for a few years now I almost so "nope no one by that name here" and hung up...but I didn't. I just said it was me...then the little old man asked if I would accept a collect call from Ecuador...Then i thought it sounded like my dad and i was about to ask why he was calling me but then I thought differently in case it wasn't him. So I said "uh sure?: Then I heard my Mom laugh and knew for sure it was them. It was so exciting to talk to them. James and I both talked to them for awhile. They told us about how they were using Skype and wanted to know if we had Internet so we could use it too...unfortunately we don't yet but when we do it'll be fun to use it to talk to them. I told them they were spoiled and not really on a mission. :) Dad said it did feel a little more like a vacation then a mission. :p Well after talking to them for about 45 min it was time to say goodbye so we could both go to bed. :) it was so good talking to them and SUCH a surprise. :)

Happy Birthday

Today is my honey's birthday :) YAY! James is such an amazing guy I cant believe how lucky I am to be his wife. James is a very kind hearted person, would give you his shirt off his back. He loves making new friends, he is always telling me that he believes he can find 1 thing in common with everybody so he can relate with anyone he comes in contact with and be-friend them. He enjoys new challenges and experiences...especially if they include traveling. :p He loves spending time with the family and playing games. James also has a strong testimony in the gospel and has a wonderful relationship with the Savior. He inspires me everyday to be better in every way. Just when I think I have him figured out he does something that I never expected. So here's to you James on your special day, I hope it's just what you want. :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

1 last CHD post

I just wanted to make sure this information got out and I wasn't sure how many of you look at the comments so this is a comment left to me by my sister in law Nikki. She's the mother of Abby. Also I saw this on Nikki's CHD website and wanted to share this post with all of you...I hope this is ok Nikki.

NikkiAWardell said...
..." If you don't mind, I want to put in a plug for the testing you talked about in your last post! Lots of good people are currently trying to get laws passed for the routine screening of newborns for heart defects. The test, which is non-invasive and involved no needles, pricks or pokes, is simply a little red light pressed on a finger or toe or foot for a few minutes. It is painless and measures the oxygen levels in the blood. Hospitals currently have the ability to do this already...it just isn't routinely done. So, until legislation is passed...ask for this test on your newborn. Low results don't necessarily mean a CHD is present but signal a need for more testing and soon. Thanks Kris! Your awesome!"

Letter From a CHD Survivor
"I look like any other girl. I like all the things the other kids like, Soccer, Basketball, tag, and video games. But I’m a little bit different than all of the kids. I’m the daughter of Nicole Wardell. I’m ten-year- old and I have Tetralogy of Fallot, a heart defect. It affects my life a whole lot. It isn’t horrible but it’s not too fun either. If I could write a letter to all the kids in the world with CHD and their families, this is what it would say.
Dear children with CHD,
I’m Abby and I have CHD just like you. I’m sorry to say having this heart defect is not easy. It will affect your life a lot. I know you must have more trials than most of your family. In this letter you will not only find advice on how to cope with it but you will also find how I feel about it.
Are you made fun of just because you’re short? Don’t worry I deal with it too. Even though the teasing can get tiring I’m 10 years old and I can still be carried by my parents. So If I can still be carried you can probably be carried for a long time too. It will be a thing that I miss when I finally get too big.
Do you run out of breath easily? I do. What I usually do is stop and take a rest. Your friends might think that’s weird but tell them why you need to stop and they will understand. You probably won’t like that but in the end you’ll be happy you didn’t faint on the playground.
Do you tend to stay sick longer than the other kids? You guessed it, I do too. Whatever you do, don’t worry. It’s normal because of your heart. It isn’t fun but you’ll just have to live with it.
Having this heart defect isn’t too fun, but it isn’t always bad. My life is a lot like my friends. I like to read books, play the piano and the guitar, listen to music, play video games, and lots of other things. I get good grades in school and like to shop for clothes.
Doctor’s and nurses can do a lot to help us overcome our heart problems. This summer I have an open heart surgery. I’m very scared. Even though I don’t want to have it, I have to. It will be yucky, no doubt about that but, my heart will be fixed and I won’t have to deal with lots of these problems anymore.
Those of you reading this have survived the disease or know someone with the disease. Others are not so lucky. It is very sad but too true that thousands of kids around the world lose their lives to CHD every day. So please give a helping hand to those in need. I hope you know you’re not the only one who deals with these trials. Let’s try to deal with it together.
Your Friend,
Abby"

CHD Contest Winners

Well just another quick thanks to everyone.

The Winner of the CHD pin is.....

RACHELE BURTENSHAW!!!! YAY! Congrats. :)

The winner of the Necklace is...

Katie Eberling!!!! Yay! Congrats

and the winner of the fleece blanket is....

CAMILLE PETERSON!!! YAY!

Congrats to all our winners please send me an e-mail with your address's so that I can get these prizes mailed off to you. Congratulations again to all our winners and thanks again to everyone who participated in the contest.

CHD Q & A

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful questions and participation with CHD Awareness Week. I hope that this week has helped spread the word about CHD. Before I do my post about the winners of the contest I first want to answers the questions that I received.


Is there a reason why you are trying to help spread awareness? Do you know someone with CHD? Yes, my niece Abby was born with CHD she had to have surgery on her heart when she was just a little baby and is actually needing surgery again this coming summer. She has a leaky valve in her heart and it has gotten to a point where they need to get it fixed before it starts causing her more problems. Unfortunately I have been told her story numerous times but because of my forgetful nature...I cant remember all the details. But my sister has a wonderful web page about CHD at www.perfectbrokenhearts.wordpress.com

What do you do about CHD? If your pregnant get tested! Or if you have a baby get the baby tested. My sister in law read a story about a mother who had a baby and didn't know that the baby had CHD. They thought everything was fine, took the baby home and a few days later the mom was just feeding the baby when the baby's nose started to bleed. So get tested get your brand new baby tested and let people know.

Is CHD something you live with forever? Are there surgeries to get rid of it, or therapies, a cure? There are so many different types of CHD that I am actually not sure with some of the other types if surgeries and other things will help. But as far as I have heard, read, researches and our family experiences I do know that there are surgeries that can help. My niece Abby is going to be having a surgery to correct her heart defect.

How can I help spread awareness? Talking about CHD to your family, friends and anyone else you know. One of the best things you can do to help spread awareness is word of mouth. Just talk about it and let anyone and everyone know. Also the pins and the necklace that was apart of the contest you can buy at www.tchin.org and all the money goes to needy families that have a loved one with CHD.

Thank you again to everyone and I hope you have a great week. Please if you still have more questions please just let me know. If I don't know the answer I can ask or put you in contact with Nikki who knows TONS more than I do. :)

CHD Awareness Week

Happy Valentines Day to all and Happy CHD Awareness Week. With CHD, Valentines Day and the Olympics going on things are quite exciting right now. Well I have a new interesting fact that I just learned today and wanted to share. USA has a young snowboarder in the Olympics...Shaun White. He is an amazing athlete and we are excited to watch him try and take the gold at the 2010 Olympics...but did you know that Shaun White is a survivor of CHD? It's true! I heard about this from my sister in law and niece today. SO I did some research and this is what I found off of kidzworld.com. "Shaun White was born with a heart defect called tetralogy of fallot. He needed two surgeries to help fix it. But not even a heart problem could have stopped Shaun from being active. He first started snowboarding when he was six years old after watching his older brother Jesse trying it. Shaun White started entering ammeter competitions a year later. After winning almost every snowboarding competition he entered, Shaun White became sponsored by Burton and turned pro when he was just 13."

Even though today is the last day of CHD Awareness Week please don't forget about CHD and all the many babies, children and families affected by it. If you are a mother or a mother to be please have your babies tested when they are born or even while they are still developing in your womb. If you know of anyone who is pregnant or trying to become pregnant please spread the word and let them know about CHD.

CHD Awareness Week

We had something very neat happen in our family recently this week to help support CHD in our community and family. My sister in law Nikki was able to contact the Mayor of Ogden and tell him about CHD and the importance of spreading awareness and asked if he would be interested in issuing a proclamation and officially making Feb 7th through the 14th Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week in Ogden. He thought that was a great idea and so this past Monday Feb 8th at 2:00 Nikki's daughter Abby received an official proclamation from Mayor Godfrey stating that Ogden now honors and acknowledges FEB 7-14 as CHD Awareness Week. HOW EXCITING IS THIS!!! Unfortunately we were unable to get newspapers, or media for that matter to cover the proclamation. But little by little we will get awareness out to and more and more people will hear about CHD. :)

CHD Awareness Week

Only 4 more days!!! Please help spread awareness. Oh and dont forget the contest and your chance to win 1 of 3 items, I've only had 2 comments so far so you can still win!

There are many CHD stories out there...some good...some sad. One that not a lot of people know about, (but know about the man) is Paul Cardall's story. He is a very talented musician and has some amazing music. He is also one of the many with CHD and has recently had a heart transplant. If you go to this address http://www.abc4.com/content/about_4/gtu/featured_on/story/Congenital-Heart-Disease-The-Celebrate-Life/i46-NB5xM0STROav-E9G_w.cspx

you can read about his story on ABC 4 news. or if you go to his blog you can see it live. Just click here. He is having a silent auction Feb 15th before his celebrate life concert and all the proceeds from the auction are going to families who have been suffering from the loss of a loved one who had CHD and to the Paul Cardall Scholarship that will be offered at SLCC. If you get a chance please take a look at these websites and if your in the Salt Lake area there are some really great things to buy at this silent auction please go check it out.

CHD Awarness Week Day

Well I am feeling a little better and I'm back at work. :) So now I want to tell you a little more about CHD. Nikki if I leave out anything please feel free to correct me. :) Congenital Heart defects is the #1 birth defect. It's present at birth but begins in the early stages of pregnancy when the baby's heart is forming. CHD has more occurrences than spina bifida, down syndrome or hearing loss. According to little hearts.org "Approximately 40,000 babies are born each year in the united states with a Chd. That equates to 1 out of 125 babies are born with heart defects." What causes congenital heart defects? "In most cases, scientists do not know what makes a baby's heart develop abnormally. Genetic and environmental factors appear to play roles.
Scientists are making progress in understanding the genetics of heart defects. Since the 1990s, they have identified about 10 gene mutations (changes) that can cause isolated (not accompanied by other birth defects) heart defects. For example, a March of Dimes grantee identified a gene that can cause a heart defect called an atrial septal defect (a hole between the upper chambers of the heart), and one that may contribute to hypoplastic left heart syndrome (underdevelopment of the heart’s main pumping chamber).
Other viral infections, such as the flu, also may contribute, as may exposure to certain industrial chemicals (solvents). Some studies suggest that drinking alcohol or using cocaine in pregnancy may increase the risk of heart defects.
Certain medications increase the risk. These include...
The acne medication isotretinoin (Accutane and other brand names)
Thalidomide (approved only for a rare, severe skin disorder, but sometimes used for other conditions) Certain anti-seizure medications.
Some studies suggest that first-trimester use of trimethoprim-sulfonamide (a combination of antibiotics sometimes used to treat urinary-tract infections) may increase the risk of heart defects. To find out more please visit the March of Dimes website." All this information I was able to get from here. CHD is a birth defect that not a lot of people know about until somehow, someway it becomes personal to them. Maybe they have a friend who has CHD, a co-worker, or a family member. Please help spread awareness.

CHD Awareness Week Day 2

First off I need to apologize for not posting anything on day 1. I have been very sick these past few days and haven't had a chance to get to a computer. So to start off CHD Week I want to tell you about the giveaway, to help spread awareness for Congenital Heart Defect. I will be giving away 3 prizes to 3 random people. One of the prizes is a pin (pictured to the left) to help spread awareness. The other is a blessings heart necklace. Both the pin and the necklace come from the congenital heart information network website that promotes CHD Awareness. The funds for these also go to families with a child with a heart defect to help them out.Front view of a necklace...Back view of the necklace

The last prize is a fleece blanket. (I don't have a picture yet)

To win one of these prizes please e-mail me at kabby17@yahoo.com or leave a comment with a question about Congenital Heart Defects as well as help spread the word. If you have a blog please either do a post about CHD Awareness Week or post a link to my my blog and ask people to visit to find out more. If you don't have a blog but are a member of facebook please post a comment on my status or send an email (add my e-mail address) to family and friends to help spread awareness. This contest will end Feb 14 at midnight and the winners will be announced Feb 15th.

Happy Birthday!

Today Lizzie and Becca celebrate their...3rd birthday Hooray! (At least I think it's their 3rd. :p) So I'll start with Lizzie first....

Lizzie is such a sweet little girl, who is also very shy when she first meets you, but then once she warms up she loves to talk and show you things. She has such a sweet personality and loves to cuddle and be with her mom and dad. She loves to take in everything around her before she shows her true self. She's a very safe girl. So here's to you Lizzie on your big day...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Becca is very opposite from her sister she is very outgoing and vocal about everything. From the first time she meets you she either likes you or she doesn't (most of the time she likes ya) and then you'll have a friend the rest of the day. :) Becca knows what she wants and does whatever she can till she gets it. :) SO here's to you Becca on your birthday..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

CHD Awareness Week

As some of you may have noticed little things have been popping up on my blog lately and you've probably seen the letters CHD. coming up more and more. Well I'm going to get more in detail about this next week but I want to let everyone know before hand so that you can try and keep an eye on my blog quite a bit. Next week is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week (7-14) and to help raise awareness everyday next week I'll be posting something new about CHD. It may be anything. Simple facts, stories, ways you can help out, etc. Also to help spread the word I will have a give away with not just 1 prize but 3; a 1st place, 2nd and 3rd place prize. So remember next week is CHD Awareness Week and a great opportunity to learn all about CHD and how you can help spread awareness and maybe even win some great prizes. :)

http://www.cmt.com/videos/john-rich/367274/shuttin-detroit-down.jhtml?id=1608465

Happy Groundhogs Day

Although I don't believe that we can tell how much longer winter will last based on a groundhog, that doesn't mean it's still not fun to share and "celebrate". :) In Pennsylvania it's this huge deal, tons of people come out and brave the cold to see Phil the groundhog and to see if he will predict more snow or not.Remember that show Groundhogs day with Bill Murray? Yeah it's just like that. Okay okay I do admit that when I was a kid I would look forward to this day and I would always hope that that silly little groundhog wouldn't see his shadow and that my dad would let us uncover the pool earlier than usual. :p I think the funnest part of groundhog day this year was trying to explain it to my student employee Ingrid who is from Brazil. She kept saying "and why do they do that?" I explained all I knew till I finally said that I wasn't exactly sure. She's hoping for an early spring too. :) Well according to Phil at sunrise this morning on the east coast we have more snow and more winter ahead of us...for Utah this means nothing. :p Who knows it may be 70 in march and snowing on the 4th of July here. Gotta love Utah weather!:) So Happy Groundhog Day!!! :D

Here are some pictures of Phil in Pennsylvania...

Changes

James and I have been doing a lot of talking, fasting and praying and with all of this we have come to a conclusion. this conclusion is going to bring a lot of changes to us but will be for the best down the road. For awhile James has been thinking of going back to school and until recently it's just been that...a thought. Well he has recently applied to the LDS Business College for the Fall 2010 Semester and he is pretty excited about it. We are not sure when/if our family will be growing soon so he feels very strongly that now is the perfect time for him to get his degree. We toyed with night class options and how things would work out but nothing seemed to fall into place. Then James prayed about putting in a transfer request at work to change from day shift to Swing shift. Again after talking about it and praying and fasting about it we felt like this is the best option. So last week James went and talked to his boss and after that everything has seemed to fall into place. The transfer went through and he is just waiting to hear when he'll be officially making the switch. the we started talking about the need for another car. So last week we researched a bunch of different cars in our price range online. We called dealers, went into different dealerships and talked A LOT with salesmen...pushy and laid back. We have been asking a lot of questions running a lot of numbers and basically just trying to figure out what we can afford, what we want and all the other little details. On Sat we had an appointment to go talk to a salesman we've been working with. the appointment got bumped up till later so we decided to go look at this little truck we found online. So we went in and it was completely different from some of the other dealerships we went to. First off we weren't bombarded with salespeople we actually had to go in and then no one came up to us. We went to the little front desk area they had and the guy asked if he could help us. we showed him the printed off information about the truck and said we wanted to look at it. So he started to look it up on his computer when a salesman came up to us. After awhile sitting listening to Journey blaring on the sound system. :p Our salesman (Drew) came in a said it was out front, it was a cute little truck, clean, in good condition. we looked it over and asked if we could get a car fax report on it and asked more questions. Then we took it for a test drive. It's only a single cab so the 3 of us squished into this little truck and took it for a little ride. I drove first and then James drove it. Drew didn't say a lot about the truck he was asking us where we were from and all that. turns out he use to live ion our stake and went to the ward we were suppose to be going to. :p (long story) Anyway it wasn't till we got back to the lot that he started talking about the truck asking if we liked it. Well James and I felt really good about it and once again after a lot of talking and looking over the car fax report we decided that it was our little truck and that we needed to get it. So here is the newest member of the Armstrong family...
James' dad has had 4 of these little Mazda trucks and loves them. It's an 02 Mazda B..something or other it has 94k miles on it and we were able to get it for a little less than $5,000. We are really excited about these changes, they will be hard at times being away from each other so much and all the things going to school comes with...but we are excited.