Jacob's new splash guards invention

Anthony started school on August 29

Adam's First day of Class at BYU was today

The class Adam had today was CS 330 Concepts of a Programming Language.

The main professor, (whatever that means) is someone Adam was a TA

for in the past and Adam really likes him.  Due to the three years

Adam has spent programming code for the programming language

Professor Windley wrote, made it easier to understand this class.

Carly and Riley started school today in West Mifflin.

The day has finally arrived first day of school! My big 7th and 5th graders! It's Rileys last year of elementary YouY😢  You can tell Carly is excited Riley not so much but this momma is excited!

This is taken from Elaine's Facebook Post.

Google Fiber flips the switch, is now available in Salt Lake City. Ben Winslow. Fox News.

Google Fiber opens its Trolley Square storefront in Salt Lake City. (Photo by Ben Winslow, FOX 13 News)

"The Internet behemoth flipped the switch on its super high-speed network in Salt Lake City, providing service in the city center and opening the doors at its Trolley Square offices for people to sign up. 
While promising to expand and provide Internet service to the entire city, Google Fiber will have service available immediately in the downtown area and Central City neighborhood -- from 300 West to 1300 East and South Temple to 800 South. Access to the Fiber network depends on whether buildings gave Google permission to wire them." 

Salt Lake City Councilman Derek Kitchen conducts a "speed test" at Google Fiber's storefront in Trolley Square. (Photo by Ben Winslow, FOX 13 News

Ben Winslow Fox 13 now.

Adam's 3 D Batman Mask is still a work in progress

                                Mary posted this on Facebook yesterday  Adam spray painted
                                        the mask twice today.

Nathan works for Huntsman Cancer Institute

Huntsman Cancer Center The Only Cancer Institute in the World Designed by a Patient

Jon Huntsman, Sr., has had cancer four times. So he’s spent enough time in cancer hospitals to know what he’d do differently when he designed one from scratch. That’s why Huntsman Cancer Institute is unlike any other. It looks different. Feels different

Nathan started working at Huntsman Cancer Research Center
on Monday, the same day Anthony was admitted to Primary
Children's Hospital.

Nathan says this may be the best job he has ever had.  He
works maintenance Monday through Friday 9:00 to 5:30 p.m.
His insurance started the same day he started work and is
the same insurance as University of Utah employees and
is almost free for most of the coverage options.

It appears Huntsman is a nice company to work for.

Anthony's ANC is 1- Normal is between 1500 and 8000

Anthony had a bloody nose on Thursday Afternoon August 11.
By the time he went to bed it had stopped and he didn't have
any more bleeding after that.

Monday morning, August 15, Anthony threw up and had a fever
so Adam and Mary took him to Primary Children's Hospital
where he was admitted to the hospital after blood work came
back with his ANC levels so low.

Anthony's white blood cell count is extremely low making him
neutropenic with no immune system to fight off anything.
Chemotherapy drugs lower the white blood cell count so
they stopped the chemotherapy.

Anthony was only in the hospital about 28 hours and is
now home.  He appears normal, but can't handle stress
and cries without much provocation.

A home health care nurse will check Anthony's ANC
on Friday August 19, although the doctors anticipate
it will not have changed.

                           Five types of white blood cells and their functions.

The Health Benefits of Knitting

I don't know why this article showed up on my Facebook feed this morning.
It is dated Jan 25, 2016.

Last April, the council created a “Stitch Away Stress” campaign in honor of National Stress Awareness Month. Dr. Herbert Benson, a pioneer in mind/body medicine and author of “The Relaxation Response,” says that the repetitive action of needlework can induce a relaxed state like that associated with meditation and yoga. Once you get beyond the initial learning curve, knitting and crocheting can lower heart rate and blood pressure and reduce harmful blood levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

But unlike meditation, craft activities result in tangible and often useful products that can enhance self-esteem.

Since the 1990s, the council has surveyed hundreds of thousands of knitters and crocheters, who routinely list stress relief and creative fulfillment as the activities’ main benefits. Among them is the father of a prematurely born daughter who reported that during the baby’s five weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit, “learning how to knit preemie hats gave me a sense of purpose during a time that I felt very helpless. It’s a hobby that I’ve stuck with, and it continues to help me cope with stress at work, provide a sense of order in hectic days, and allows my brain time to solve problems.”

A recent email from the yarn company Red Heart titled “Health Benefits of Crocheting and Knitting” prompted me to explore what else might be known about the health value of activities like knitting.

 My research revealed that the rewards go well beyond replacing stress and anxiety with the satisfaction of creation.

For example, Karen Zila Hayes, a life coach in Toronto, conducts knitting therapy programs, including Knit to Quit to help smokers give up the habit, and Knit to Heal for people coping with health crises, like a cancer diagnosis or serious illness of a family member. Schools and prisons with craft programs report that they have a calming effect and enhance social skills. And having to follow instructions on complex craft projects can improve children’s math skills.

Some people find that craftwork helps them control their weight. Just as it is challenging to smoke while knitting, when hands are holding needles and hooks, there’s less snacking and mindless eating out of boredom.

I’ve found that my handiwork with yarn has helped my arthritic fingers remain more dexterous as I age. A woman encouraged to try knitting and crocheting after developing an autoimmune disease that caused a lot of hand pain reported on the Craft Yarn Council site that her hands are now less stiff and painful.

A 2009 University of British Columbia study of 38 women with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa who were taught to knit found that learning the craft led to significant improvements. Seventy-four percent of the women said the activity lessened their fears and kept them from ruminating about their problem.

Betsan Corkhill, a wellness coach in Bath, England, and author of the book “Knit for Health & Wellness,” established a website, Stitchlinks, to explore the value of what she calls therapeutic knitting. Among her respondents, 54 percent of those who were clinically depressed said that knitting made them feel happy or very happy. In a study of 60 self-selected people with chronic pain, Ms. Corkhill and colleagues reported that knitting enabled them to redirect their focus, reducing their awareness of pain. She suggested that the brain can process just so much at once, and that activities like knitting and crocheting make it harder for the brain to register pain signals. More of Stitchlinks findings are available at their website.

Perhaps most exciting is research that suggests that crafts like knitting and crocheting may help to stave off a decline in brain function with age. In a 2011 study, researchers led by Dr. Yonas E. Geda, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., interviewed a random sample of 1,321 people ages 70 to 89, most of whom were cognitively normal, about the cognitive activities they engaged in late in life. The study, published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, found that those who engaged in crafts like knitting and crocheting had a diminished chance of developing mild cognitive impairment and memory loss.

Although it is possible that only people who are cognitively healthy would pursue such activities, those who read newspapers or magazines or played music did not show similar benefits. The researchers speculate that craft activities promote the development of neural pathways in the brain that help to maintain cognitive health.

In support of that suggestion, a 2014 study by Denise C. Park of the University of Texas at Dallas and colleagues demonstrated that learning to quilt or do digital photography enhanced memory function in older adults. Those who engaged in activities that were not intellectually challenging, either in a social group or alone, did not show such improvements.

Given that sustained social contacts have been shown to support health and longevity, those wishing to maximize the health value of crafts might consider joining a group of like-minded folks. I for one try not to miss a single weekly meeting of my knitting group.

JANE E. BRODY. NEW YORK TIMES. JANUARY 25, 2016

Ellie is the FIRST Grandchild to start school in 2016

Ellie started School on August 10.  It seems awfully early in the year, as well
as early for Ellie, even though she has waited a L O N G time for this day.

Good Luck Ellie and poor Roxy who stays home and misses Ellie.

Flying can be hazardous to your Health

These images are from Bing images.  Go Figure
I am not the only one to fly with "sick" people.

On my two connecting flights from Pittsburgh to Salt Lake
on August 6, there were sick people close to me on the
plane.

The lady right next to me on the Pittsburgh flight had
a runny nose and cough.  The first three hours she kept
sniffing and she sounded so bad  I thought for sure I
would throw up.  For the last hour she blew her nose
constantly, and stacked the used kleenex on her dinner
tray.  (BEWARE of airplane dinner trays)  Her cough
sounded much worse at the end of the flight than
it did at the beginning.

On the flight from Phoenix to Salt Lake, which was
almost empty, I could hear the person in front of
me blowing their nose.  It turns out there were
two people in front of me blowing their nose.

The cost to change the dates on my American Flight
was an addition $840.00 to what I had already paid so
that is why people have to fly sick.

We are lucky there aren't more heart attacks and strokes
on flights.

Walt Disney World pulling plug on famed Electrical Parade

I remember the Electrical Parade from when I went to
Disneyland.  According to this story the Electrical Parade
was in California from 1972 to 1996 which means I saw
it in 1972 just before I went to Hawaii.
Disney says the parade will be shipped west for a limited run at
 Disneyland in California, where it ran from 1972 to 1996.

Disney Parks Blog

Mary has gallstones.

Mary was about 34 weeks pregnant when they diagnosed the pains
in her chest were gallstones.

She had been to the emergency room several times and they told her
she had heartburn, so I am not sure if she knows how pregnant she
was when she had gallstones.

She saw a surgeon Friday and he plans to monitor her blood, specifically
her bilirubin count weekly and try to wait until two weeks AFTER
the baby is born to do the surgery.

Mary was either 35 weeks or 37 weeks on August 17.  Her OB doctors
moved her due date back twice for a total of two weeks during his
first visits.