Eclipse/Twilight Party!

My friend Nathalie had a Twilight themed birthday party! It was a lot of fun. She did a lot of work to get everything perfect. We had "italiano" and there were some special guests, Jacob and Edward, that we got to take pics with. There was a pinata, and fun goodie bags. Here are a few of the cute pictures!

I got there early, and it was a good thing because there was a lot to do. We got the tables set up and took a fun pic together really quick.


Look how cute these oreos are! You should have tasted them. Delicious.


She was super cute and creative with the drinks. We had sparkling cider at the dinner, but got to take home these cute drinks with special labels, like blood types. The bottom pic is Red Crush, but she wasn't sure if everyone would want soda, so she did some water too. So cute.



These were red (blood) cupcakes, and they had these cute toppers with the faces of the Twilight characters. It was a blast. Loved it!

James' Mission Call

James got his mission call! He was called to the Houston South Mission, Spanish speaking. He had planned to go up the canyon to open his call. He was on his way to the post office to get it, and I called, and asked him if he would please open it in front of the family. He agreed, so we all met up at Kneader's, for yummy french toast, and of course...the exciting news!

It was such an amazing experience to have the family gathered to share in something so momentous for James. We were all smiles and the room was fairly buzzing with excitement.


Mom and Dad were really excited. Dad came with all of his camera gear, and seemed like he was on cloud 9. Mom was thrilled as well. In fact, in the 30 minutes it took to get everyone in the car and to the restaurant they called the family to let them know to come if they could.

Debbie, Dave, and Grandma all came, and shared in the joy of the family!


We are all really excited for James, and hope he has a fantastic mission, that it is a wonderful experience, and one that he comes home from with nothing but good feelings.

Here is a shot of the call itself!

This is the signature of Thomas S Monson, which is pretty dang cool!


Look at him smiling!

Hanging in there!

Today I took a friend rock climbing for her birthday. It was my first time, as well as hers, so we decided to take some experts along with us. James (my brother), and his friend Taylor. They showed us the ropes (every pun intended), and let us climb.



I went first, I started out strong, and felt good, but then I hit a spot where I couldn't find my next area, and then I looked down, and I panicked. I got all shaky, I froze up. I can't believe what a wus I was. I got over it though, and kept on climbing.

This is me almost to the top!



Then Nathalie, my friend, went. She did much better than I did. This is her when she made it up to the top part. Looking happy!



These are the knots James taught us! He used his nice air bending skills to do it, and I used my, "Umm, show me again" skills.


We made it back alive and safely thanks to the oh so generous and ever careful James and Taylor. Poor James was dying at the end because he had to sit at the top in his harness forever, and it was cutting into his legs. I was SLOOOOOOW. haha Nat made it up in less than half the time it took me.


It was a really fun morning, and just what I needed to remind myself to "hang" in there! It is funny how many life lessons rock climbing can be symbolic of. If you just keep going over your obstacles, new hand holds appear. Happy Birthday Nat, thanks James and Taylor for giving us such a fun experience.

Therapuetic blogging

I have always found in my life that talking out my problems is the fastest way for me to get over them. If I keep them inside they seem to fester, and then I bubble over with unwanted emotional outbreaks, etc. So, to help myself, I have usually kept a journal of some kind. This way, even if I am not talking to someone, I am getting out my thoughts and feelings in some way. Today, my blog will serve that purpose.

I have had a fairly tough start to the week and it is only 1:37 on Monday. Yesterday, we were trying to go to a friend's farewell, and we weren't sure where it was. So, we went to pull out the GPS I had just bought, so we could plug in directions, and found out it had been stolen. We hadn't even had it for a week, and it was already gone. With that on my mind, it was really hard to get much out of church. I just couldn't seem to focus, I was playing the past days over and over in my head trying to figure out when, where, and how it could have been taken, as we are pretty vigilant about locking up the car.

The rest of the day seemed to be going along the same way, a bit rough with some good parts thrown in. That evening we had some friends over for dinner, and played games. I was feeling better about things, and while I hated the wasted money, I had to think that it could have been a lot worse.

We went to the neighbors later for smores and to let the kids play. Lexi was on their playset, and went down the slide a bit too fast, and hurt her foot. She cried for a while, and complained about it hurting, but it looked fine, and I thought nothing of it. We ended up going to bed a while later, and about 2 in the morning she came into our room screaming bloody murder. She was sobbing hysterically, and couldn't catch her breath. I was sooooo tired, and tried to be patient to find out what was wrong. She kept touching her foot and saying what I later translated into it hurts. I calmed her down, and snuggled her up. A few minutes later she needed to use the bathroom, but when she got up, she started screaming and crying again. Apparently putting pressure on her foot hurt too much. After unsuccessfully trying to calm her down and quiet her so she wouldn't wake up her brothers, I asked her what she wanted to do. She said, "I just need to say a prayer."

Her prayer was a heartfelt plee to HF that the pain would just go away, and stop hurting her. She sobbed through the whole thing. Because it was 3 in the morning by then, and she was no closer to going back to bed, I decided to take her to the ER just in case something was broken.

We went to Orem Community. No one else was there, but it still took several hours. When the doctor finally came in to see her, she had calmed down significantly, but her toe was still severely swollen. He sent us over to radiology for an x-ray. The room with the x-ray was freezing cold, so she cried the whole time. The tech gave her a sticker for being such a good patient.

When we got back to the exam room, a different nurse came in to check on our insurance information, and Lexi proudly reported, "I got this beautiful princess sticker for being so patient." I couldn't help but laugh at her misunderstanding, but both applied I guess since we had been there almost 2 hours at that point.

When the doctor finally came back in he told me that her toe was jammed, and swollen, but there were no breaks, and she just needed some asprin and a band aid.

So, I am glad nothing is wrong with her, but a bit frustrated that I had just spent $125 in a copay, plus whatever I end up owing for x-rays, for them to tell me to put a band aid on it. Not to mention I got almost no sleep last night.

Today, Lexi won't walk on it at all, she either crawls or asks me to carry her. Needless to say it has been a tiring and frustrating morning thus far.

The point of my ranting and raving-- I had an expensive, unproductive, and frustrating start to the day/week. I am tired. I am overwhelmed. I have more work than I can handle on 4 hours of sleep. I have a husband that can't help much because he can't walk without crutches. I have an ever growing to-do list. I have laundry out my ears. I have 3 sweet children who just want to go play, and instead I sit here blogging. But, I learned that things are just things, money is just money, a lack of sleep won't kill me, and at least I have a beautiful family, a loving Heavenly Father, and a great support system in place.

Can I really learn that much from close to $300 of wasted money, 2.5 pointless hrs in the ER, and a stolen GPS? Maybe not, but that is how I am feeling today. So thanks Gma S. for inviting us to swim, Mom and James for playing with my kids at the pool, Neil and Kathy for calling to check that we are okay, and anyone who reads this long outpouring of thoughts.

The start of a fantastic summer...

Summer is here, and I feel like singing...well not literally, I am a terrible singer, and it would be painfully off key. However, the sun, the activities, the warmth, are all welcome, and have really improved my mood.

Brett is back at work, and we are sad to have him gone. We enjoyed his 3 weeks home with the family. Even though we were limited in our activities, it was great to have family dinner each night, roast marshmallows three or four times a week, and just be together as a family all day.




Dillan and Alexis are in day camp at the Orem Rec Center, and I LOVE it. Oh my gosh, it is so nice to have them get up, have something fun to look forward to which encourages them to get dressed, eat breakfast, etc. in a pace faster than the normal snail's pace they seem to keep. They take a sack lunch to camp, and so when I pick them up at noon, they have already eaten, and spent a few hours learning and playing. I had my morning free to exercise or work, and they had a great time, so we are all the happier for it.
Because I have had some time without the kids, I started taking tennis lessons from a friend. It has been so much fun. I am not very good, but I am improving, and I am enjoying every minute of it.

We try to do something outside every day. We have been walking to day camp, I have been trying to jog in the mornings, and we have been swimming at Grandma Simmons a few times.

We just planned a fun summer vacation, and things are happy. Basically, the Brett Yerkes family loves summer, especially now that we have the Sea Doo's summerized and are ready to hit the lake. My kids keep saying funny things, and I smile, laugh, yell, cry, and smile some more. Oh the life of being a parent with three little ones, can't wait until Dillan starts kindergarten in the fall!

50th Wedding Anniversary!

A family picture.


A lovely woman recreated their wedding cake. It was amazing.
Well it was not my 50th, but this weekend we had a wonderful Golden Anniversary party. We held it at my Grandma Simmons clubhouse. We decorated and had a wonderful dinner. Harvest restaurant catered a Prime Rib for us, and we had twice baked potatoes, spinach salad, watermelon, and french green beans. We had a wonderful video, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Here are a few fun pictures.

Brett's Surgery Update

Brett had his surgery on the 28th. We got to the hospital at 8:15, and waited in the lobby for a few minutes until they brought him back to the surgery prep room. They inserted his IV, shaved his leg, and had about a million people come in to tell him about the various procedures they would be doing, what the risks were, and what to expect. They were very informative, and we really appreciated that.

After a while they took Brett back for surgery. I was sent to the lobby to wait, and was told the doctor (Dr. Aoki), would come and talk to me when Brett was done.

In order to help him with his pain they gave him a nerve block, as well as other anesthesia.

The surgery went well. They basically did a hair plug, but with knee cartilage. So, they made a hole for the cartilage to go in. They drilled out some cartilage from another part of his knee, and inserted it.

After about 1.5 hours of sitting in the lobby the doctor came out and told me the surgery went well, and gave me some pictures, told me what happened, and gave me information about post op. About 3 hours after that a nurse came out. She explained that it took so long because Brett did not want to wake up from his anesthesia. She gave me a prescription, I went and filled it, and then came back and a half hour later we were able to leave.

Brett did great! He was pretty coherent and his pain was pretty decent.

Now we are home, he is resting in order to recover, and I am diligently trying to keep kids off his leg, and make sure he does his leg exercises, and takes his pain medication on time.

Thanks for all the concern! We will keep you updated.