A Brock-Friendly Thanksgiving

Clayton's brother, Brock, came to visit for Thanksgiving week.  We don't get visitors very often, so we were really excited that he came.  I would love to report that we did so many cool and exciting Detroit things, but we didn't.  We did spend lots of time with Brock, though, and the kids had a blast with him.  I would say that the highlights included Clay and Brock getting a new basketball and playing at the church together, taking the whole fam to the indoor pool by our house, Thanksgiving dinner at the Beutler's house, and - who can forget - a sugar coma induced by pie and slush.  Yes, indeed.  Thanksgiving night, after a huge meal with our friends (including pie), we came home and had 3 pieces of pie each (you know, one of each kind),  and slush.  Clay and Brock both fell asleep pretty fast, and I wasn't feeling too good myself.  Why did I make so much pie?  We each wanted a different kind, of course.  Brock ordered key lime, Clay wanted lemon supreme, and I wanted pumpkin pecan.  And what would the holidays be like without slush to complete the sugar rush!

Here are a few pictures from our the big dinner.  Our friends were so nice to invite us over.  I was very impressed when every one of the members of all 5 invited families had a place to sit at a table.

The Beutler's who hosted Thanksgiving dinner.                

Clay, Me, and Max's bald spot

Luke is hiding behind the paper turkey.

  

The princess table.  Audrey is at the far left in black and pink.  

Brock read lots of books to the kids, played football indoors and out, and is very welcome to come again!  We love you, Brock!

Cluster Attack

Poor Clayton.  The past three weeks he has been suffering from Cluster headaches, nicknamed "suicide headaches."  If you are interested in learning more about them, I recommend the Wikipedia.org article.  Otherwise, let this section from the aforementioned article suffice:

The pain of cluster headaches is markedly greater than in other headache conditions, including severe migraines; experts have suggested that it may be the most painful condition known to medical science... Dr. Peter Goadsby, Professor of Clinical Neurology at University College London, a leading researcher on the condition has commented:

"Cluster headache is probably the worst pain that humans experience. I know that’s quite a strong remark to make, but if you ask a cluster headache patient if they’ve had a worse experience, they’ll universally say they haven't. Women with cluster headache will tell you that an attack is worse than giving birth. So you can imagine that these people give birth without anesthetic once or twice a day, for six, eight, or ten weeks at a time, and then have a break. It's just awful."

The pain is lancinating or boring in quality, and is located behind the eye (periorbital) or in the temple, sometimes radiating to the neck or shoulder. Analogies frequently used to describe the pain are a red-hot poker inserted into the eye, or a spike penetrating from the top of the head, behind one eye, radiating down to the neck, or sometimes having a leg amputated without any anaesthetic. The condition was originally named Horton's Cephalalgia after Dr. B.T Horton, who postulated the first theory as to their pathogenesis. His original paper describes the severity of the headaches as being able to take normal men and force them to attempt or complete suicide. From Horton's 1939 paper on cluster headache:

"Our patients were disabled by the disorder and suffered from bouts of pain from two to twenty times a week. They had found no relief from the usual methods of treatment. Their pain was so severe that several of them had to be constantly watched for fear of suicide. Most of them were willing to submit to any operation which might bring relief."

This is the third attack I have witnessed since Clay and I have been married, and it truly is horrible.  No medications even dull the pain, ER visits do no good, and I have sat up many a night to make sure that Clay doesn't harm himself in a fit of uncontrollable pain.  Amazingly, he has only missed one day of work this time, and, thankfully, a Priesthood blessing from our Home Teachers did help lessen the frequency and intensity.  I sincerely hope that none of our children inherit this horrible condition.  Clayton has been quite a strong man to overcome these brain-thrashing episodes and still keep up with his responsibilities at work, home, and church.  We love him and couldn't do without him!

I had to include this picture taken at a Piston's game.  Clay was so excited to take us, but got a cluster at tip-off.  He suffered through for about an hour, and we had to go home.  Poor guy!

Costumes!

This year a flower fairy, race-car driver, and lion graced our presence.

Luke had a parade and party at school (some lame mom forgot her camera!), and he loved doing Halloween crafts all month.  I don't know much about race-car driving, but apparently he is Jeff Gordon.

Here's our little flower fairy!  Honestly, she looked about how she looks every day.  She is pretty much always wearing a ballet, fairy, or princess outfit.

Max the lion.  I thought he was so cute, I couldn't stop kissing his cheeks.

A little repeat from last year.  Getting together clever, amazing costumes for us was on my to-do list, but I never got around to it.  Maybe next year.

Our ward had a fabulous Halloween party and Trunk-or-Treat this year.  We had a lot of fun.

Mummified Audrey

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins

This was a fun little craft that the kids and I did.  We decorated squash and pumpkins with little bear dress-up stuff from the dollar store.   The kids loved it.

Clay was our master pumpkin cleaner-outer.  He could clean one out in a minute or less!

Me working hard.

Audrey with the pumpkin she designed herself.  Maybe she's imitating it?

The creations of Luke and Audrey.  Pretty good, eh?

Can you believe we did all this in less than an hour?!

Behold the Carnage

Our cute, little Audrey has sure been trying to make herself not so cute.  First, she had an accident on a friend's trampoline, bit all the way through her lip, and killed one of her front teeth.  Not two weeks later, and she gave herself this haircut.  I guess she was tired of having the front hang in her face, so she chopped it all off.  Now, she has a little bob haircut while the front grows out and a gray front tooth.  Poor girl!  She doesn't really mind, though - except she doesn't like that she doesn't have the curls in the back like Sleeping Beauty anymore.  :)

Fall Fun in Pictures

For Uncle Brock

Dear Uncle Brock,

Thanks for the coat.  

Apparently this family has gotten a lot of mileage out of it!

Aren't I cute?

Love,

Max

Clay in San Diego

Clay went for a week to San Diego for a medical conference.  Despite much excitement beforehand, he said it wasn't as much fun as he was anticipating.  The weather was chilly and overcast (not conducive to surfing), and his buddy, Vivek, wasn't as awesome of a roommate as me.  He did get a lot of good conference learning in, and he visited the USS Midway aircraft carrier.

Clay in front of the Conference Center

Views of the City

Top Gun plane

To the Apple Orchard We Go...

We felt the pull of our favorite orchard and decided to introduce Bryce and Becky to all the Michigan fun.  The funny thing is, we never actually picked apples, but we did just about everything else!  Then, we got some big, beautiful, Michigan-grown Honeycrisp apples at our friendly neighborhood Kroger.

We are so glad that Bryce and Becky came to visit us.  Unfortunately, this is the second time in a row that someone in the family has died unexpectedly when they set foot in Detroit, so we're not so sure they are hurrying back anytime soon.  But, it was so nice to spend time with them.  We love you guys!