More Chinese celebration . Poor Matthew got his tongue stuck on an ice cream bar.

China Buffet restaurant eating

Baptism day continued Family photos

--
Adriana Cassani

Matthew was baptized the day after Christmas

It was a nice, that most of our family could be there, along with some close friends. Especially as it was a busy day for many. Nathan, his brother baptized him. Afterwards, Matthew was confirmed by his Dad. Then we all went out to the Asian Buffet restaurant, in American Fork for dinner.
Back row left to right:
Samuel (my son), Ron Hatfield (My church dad), Andrew Brown (my brother) Daniel Cassani (my son), Nathaniel Cassani (my son), Michael Smith (our then Bishop) Adam Boyle (Our hometeacher) and (his companion) his son Andrew Boyle.
Second row: L to R
Trudy Owens (my previous Chinese Teacher at UVU) Maurine Hatfield (church mom), Sandy Harris
 (my previous RS president, in the Lindon ward) Katie Cassani (my daughter), Alisha Lynn Cassani (my daughter-in-law)with Jonathan Cassani (my grandson), Emily Weber (my first cousin once removed), (She is the daughter of my cousin Irene Brown Weber) her husband Antonio Zuta,
Stephen Cassani, Sister               ,  and Brother Tolton,
Front row: Adriana, Molly Cassani (my daughter), Matthew Cassani My son), David Cassani.k

Preparing dinner in the Kitchen Christmas eve with one of Santa's elf

Fwd: Meili's Smile

The Sun is shinning...She is smiling

Fwd: Ward Christmas party

Fwd: School play "The deliverer" about Moses

Matthew was an Egyptian guard, and Stephen a Hebrew slave

Fwd: Sam's grin

Merry christmas from your 15 year old grandson

Jonathan without his pacifier. What a smile!

Katie's new winter coat

Jonathan opening gifts. Note: Daniel's "Blond look"

--
Adriana Cassani

Meili and Mom

Meili Joy Cassani and mom. SHe has such

A visit to Tammy Clayton

I saw all her kids, her husband John and her new baby girl Annalise
Jacob, William, Bryce, and Spencer.

Cowboy boots

We bought Jonathan cowboyboots for the cold weather.
Isn't he adorable?

School Christmas concert

Matthew and Stephen performed in an interfaith concert.
Aren't they so handsome in their dress unifroms?
Adriana Cassani

Molly's smile

Molly has the sweetest smile and a countence filled with light.

Matthew's grin

It is so rare, to get a picture of Matthew smiling.
He has a great sense of humor and wit.
That is because he always looks so serious.

Stephen's second cast

Thisis his second cast. The pin is still in, and will be for a few more months
That is Dr. Wells in the background. He was the one who took care of him in the emergency room.

Derby cars

Cub scout Pinewood Derby

Stephen's car lost a wheel, he was bummed. However, Matthew's as funny looking car took second place overall. He was pretty tickled.

Stephen's pancake surprise

He was making pancakes when the batter poofed up in his face, when he attempted to stir it.

Guess who got glasses?

Turns out Molly can't see the chalkboard at school. She didn't pass the school vision testing.

She was so excited when she put on her glasses for the first time, and realized things at a distance ,
are no longer as fuzzy.

Re: Matthew is getting baptized! you are invited. TIME IS NOON Sat Dec 26th SAVE that date

I was just informed by our home teacher that the baptism will take place at the stake center . If you go up 900 east (heading north) towards the Timpanogos temple, just before the hill begin to rise you turn left, go to the end of the street . It dead ends into the parking lot of our stake. We are in the American Fork 32nd ward and the American Fork Utah East stake .
833 East 500 North
American Fork, UT   84003
801-763-2030 (Office)

DEC 26th  at noon
 So if you get lost call my cell phone 801-669-7849

Adriana

On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 1:02 PM, Adriana Cassani <adriana@cassani.net> wrote:

Matthew expressed a desire to be baptized and He passed his interview with the Bishop.

The day after Christmas is when we are going to do it. So that our visiting family can be here.

 Sometime that afternoon. Waiting for the Bishop to tell us the time.. just heads up

We will have the temple sealing sometime next year

--
Adriana Cassani

--
Adriana Cassani

EMERGENCY Recipe enclosed for Grandma's Famous Gingerbread (Merry Christmas ; ) )

Grandma's gingerbread

3  eggs

1. cup of sugar

1. cup of salad  oil 

1. cup of molasses

1. cup of buttermilk ( Or 1. cup of whole milk with 1 tsp of vinegar in it) 

3 cups flour

spices

2 tsp. soda
2 tsp. powdered ginger

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Beat sugar and eggs, then add remaining liquids and beat well.

 Sift all dry ingredients together and then add gradually to bowl and beat until smooth. 

Bake in a 9x13 baking pan (greased) at 325 degrees for an hour or until done.

This is a coarse, rich, dark bread, far removed from packaged mixes. It has a chewy crust- guaranteed irresistible..

Warning: one pan will not be enough for a large family! They will want more

--
Adriana Cassani

Matthew is getting baptized! you are invited. SAVE that date

Matthew expressed a desire to be baptized and He passed his interview with the Bishop.

The day after Christmas is when we are going to do it. So that our visiting family can be here.

 Sometime that afternoon. Waiting for the Bishop to tell us the time.. just heads up

We will have the temple sealing sometime next year
Post note: Oct 2019
Sadly David refused to get on medication for his mental effective disorder of Bipolar.
So he left our family in April the following year 2010, and abdicated his responsibilities as a father.
Much to my disappointment and heart ache I  have not been able to have Matthew sealed to me and my other children.

Follow up from Surgery

We won't know for a week whether or not there has been any scarring in their liver from their blood condition they have. However once we do find out, then we will know if we need to begin treatments or not. Hopefully it will all go well. The kids had such a great time at the hospital they didn't want to come home I guess you could say it was like Club Med, they had all kinds of video games to play, DVDs to watch, room service food ordering.. etc.
We finally got approval to leave at 8:30 p.m. They couldn't reach our doctor so they had to call the other liver team members. Meili's hematocrit was lower by .3 so they didn't want to let us go without approval from one of the team Dr.
So at 9 p.m. we headed home . At 9:45 p.m. we were in the driveway and dropped into bed by ten. I couldn't even remember when I woke up this morning what day it was or where I was.
Anyway they go back to school today but can't play sports or do any strenuous physical exercise just for today. They wanted to wear their name badges to school, and wouldn't take off their fancy bandage from their I.V. I wished I had remembered to take my camera. The one on my cell phone wasn't working and I missed some great pictures.
Otherwise we are chilling and glad it went well.
Adriana

Surgeries.

Meili and Matthew underwent a liver biopsy this afternoon. We are checking to see if their blood condition is doing any damage with scarring to their livers. If in a week the results show a problem they will need to start weekly treatments. The Dr will discuss our options then. So all went well going in. The kids were thrilled with the various xbox, nintendos etc.
Meili came out of surgery having a rough time with pain and dizziness. She needed 3 dose of fental? She really freaked out with the dizziness and it triggered her PTSD. She was feeling out of control, and started crying.
A common problem for someone with her past issues.
So To get her comfortable we had to up her medication , close her eyes and rub her back and hold hand pressure points. . Matthew needed two doses of meds. Complained of being uncomfortable and was fine after ten minutes. . He later asked for more pain med. They are up eating (room service ordering pizza and milk shakes) watching the first star wars episode of the 70's . We have to wait six hours for clearance to go home. They have to be observed that long to be sure they don't have any bleeding problems.
Ok so I am headed back to nap in their room. It was a long night, early morning and long day.
Adriana
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Family t-shirts! Aren't they neat!

I loved this, a friend sent it. Food for thought!

TWENTY THINGS TO
REMEMBER
============================

1. Faith is the ability to not panic.

2. If you worry, you didn't pray.
If you prayed, don't worry.

3. As a child of God, prayer is kinda like
calling home every day.

4. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not
be bent out of shape.

5. When we get tangled up in our problems,
be still. God wants us to be still so He
can untangle the knot.

6. Do the math. Count your blessings.

7. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.

8. Dear God: I have a problem. It's me.

9. Silence is often misinterpreted, but never
misquoted.

10. Laugh every day - it's like inner jogging.

11. The most important things in your home
are the people.

12. Growing old is inevitable,
growing up is optional.
(Live it; Preach it!)

13. There is no key to happiness.
The door is always open.
Come on in.

14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.

15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

16. We do not remember days - but moments.
Life moves too fast so enjoy your precious
moments.

17. Nothing is real to you until you experience it;
otherwise it's just hearsay.

18. It's all right to sit on your pity pot every
now and again. Just be sure to flush
when you are done.

19. Surviving and living your life successfully
requires courage. The goals and dreams
you're seeking require courage and risk-taking.
Learn from the turtle, it only makes progress when it sticks out
its neck.

20. Be more concerned with your character
than your reputation. Your character is what you really are, while your reputation
is merely what others think you are. No matter the storm, when you are with God,
there's always a rainbow waiting. Leave
gentle fingerprints on the soul of another
for the angels to read. I don't want to get
to the end of my life and find that I lived
just the length of it. I want to have lived
the width of it as well.

ok so I joined weight watchers tonight and I am going to give it a try

Daniel joined with me so we will see what happens..

A little excitement for the evening....

Here's my little drama for the evening

I sat down to dinner and started to be feel sick. I suddenly felt dizzy, weak, tired, and headachey. I thought maybe I just needed to hurry and eat something , even though I made sure I had a fruit smoothie this afternoon. AS the dinner wore on I decided to lay down as I was now feeling rather tipsy and then sudden nausea came on, just mild but uncomfortable all the same. I laid down in an effort to pass it by, but it only got worse. Such that when I got up to walk back to the kitchen, I was really tipsy and you'd thought I was drunk , I could hardly walk straight. I grew concerned and figured I had better look up heart attack/stroke symptoms.. SO after reading those and knowing our family history I figured I had better go over to the hospital lab for an EEG. I had the Dr order in my purse in the event I needed it. So I went in and told them what I needed. they gave me a choice to do just that or go through ER for a more through screening. By that point I felt really awful and decided to do that. 

so after a couple of hours

 I got back from ER where they determined  I was not having a heart attack , stroke or had suddenly developed diabetes. Rather I had a bad case of vertigo and fluid in my ears which compounded that .. So an IV and a bag of fluids,
 a CT scan of my head and neck (to check for a stroke, or narrowing of my veins) (that was good BTW),
a blood sugar test for diabetes, (was ok )
and , a blood test to check everything else about me,
and some oxygen;  seemed to fix me up pretty good.  

 They sent me home with some meds to take if it continues.  They then offered  me a shot of a Valium if I needed it, apparently the drug of choice for bad vertigo. I declined after walking the halls to see how I was feeling . By that point, and  after using the restroom, I decided I didn't need it. Since I didn't fall on my face and I was able to walk a straight line , I figured I'd pass on the drugs and head home to bed.  Nice to know if it had been a serious emergency, I was in good hands!

Adriana

Nite

--
Adriana Cassani

Halloween

Ok here we have two secret service agents, Matthew and Meili.  Earlier he was dressed as the President of the US . However, then at the last minute he changed his mind. So I dressed him as a polynesian warrior.
Molly is a witch, Alicia, (our respite gal) is a fairy,  as for me  I am just a crazy parent.
 I didn't dress up this year. I tought about being Maria in the sound of music,
 but I just never got around to it.

Our dog has a drinking problem.

Do you suppose our kids loving this poor dog to bits, is what is  driving her to drink?

Grandma with Baby Anadel

Geese lined up to greet us.
Sliding is FUN  wheee!

Ad

Family outing, at Tilden park in Berkeley

Family of three visiting the animals.

Activities with Anadel,

cruising around in her car, drawing and coloring, and admiring her curly head  fresh out of the bath tub.

Keeping baby Anadel, entertained at the Green Garden restaurant

I made her a hat out of the paper placement, while waiting for the food to come.
The food was delicious by the way! It was also authentic. The restuarant was  in Pleasant Hill California
--
Adriana Cassani