MoaBlog

After two and a half years of wearing orthodontic braces on her teeth, Brooklyn finally had them removed today. She took these photos of her new smile this afternoon. Baby Geneva was having fun watching the computer take her picture, too.

More photos from Moab's Relay for Life, which ended at 8 a.m. Saturday. Many of the participants walked several miles each, and a few even made it to the 20-mile mark (80 laps around the track).

Tonight was Moab's annual Relay for Life event, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Several hundred people attended the opening ceremony Friday night. More than 40 survivors ceremoniously carried a torch, then walked around the track to start the event. Many of the participants planned to keep walking throughout the night until the event was to end at 8 a.m. Saturday. Check back Monday for more photos!

Geneva's EEG scan at the hospital went well the other day. She didn't like the sensors that were placed on her head, however.

The local high school softball team participated in the annual "Swing for Life" exhibition tournament in Salt Lake last weekend. The event featured dozens of games and a hit-a-thon to raise money for breast cancer research. The Lady Devils wore pink uniforms instead of their usual red and black jerseys. On the back of each pink T-shirt were the words "Fight Like a Girl." Pictured, from top: Stephanie, Miranda, Mikayla, and Shelby. The Lady Devils won three out of their four games on Friday.

Local teenager Mike recently suffered a "black eye," a type of injury characterized by dark purple bruising around the eye's orbit. In this case, his eyeball also suffered a bleeding laceration. Although it looks severe, the injury is expected to fully heal in a short period of time.

Jeff and Penny and their three oldest daughters visited the "Body Worlds 3" exhibition in Salt Lake City on Monday. The educational exhibit features an assortment of real human bodies and body parts, arranged in various ways designed to teach people about their bodies and how they work. The specimens are preserved via a special patented process called plastination. The bottom photo (from the Body Worlds website) shows the arrangement of blood vessels in the human head. Jeff's family spent over two hours in the exhibit, and thought it was a fascinating and worthwhile experience.

Jeff tripped and fell down on the surface of the street tonight while going out to get the newspaper. He injured the right side of his face, including the area around his eye socket. Fortunately, the bleeding stopped soon after the injury and he won't need to have stitches. Also, nothing was broken. Next time, he'll take a flashlight out in the dark!

After the big Utah football win last night, Jeff stayed outside the locker room so that he could visit with Utah center Zane Taylor (top photo). Zane sprained his ankle near the end of the game, and had it wrapped in ice afterward (bottom photo).

Jeff's mom Ann gets her haircut at Robanne's house every Saturday morning.

London cut her toe recently while running around outside in her bare feet. After washing her foot off in the sink, her grandpa put a plastic bandage on the cut, and she was "all better"!

Brooklyn visited the dentist yesterday to have one of her baby teeth pulled from the top left side of her mouth. The tooth was interfering with her orthodontic braces, so the dentist numbed her mouth with a shot of novocaine, then pulled out the tooth with a pliers-like tool.

About 20 local Boy Scouts were taught CPR and other lifesaving skills last night as part of their requirements for the First Aid merit badge. The boys practiced chest compressions and rescue breathing on plastic dummies. The two-part class continues tonight.

Brooklyn got new orthodontic braces on her teeth today. She'll visit the dentist once a month to have the wires tightened. Her teeth should be straightened out in about 18 months.

The night before her cowboy poetry performance, River got a small (1 cm) cut on her head when a glass light fixture fell from the ceiling and grazed the top of her skull (she had been playing with an inflatable ball in her bedroom, and the fixture fell when the tossed-up ball struck it). Although the cut bled rather profusely for 15 minutes or so, no stitches were needed, and it was almost completely healed by the following day.

The vending machines at the local high school no longer sell soda pop, candy bars, potato chips, and other "junk" food. Instead, the only drinks available are bottled water and sport drinks. Snacks are limited to granola bars and other healthful choices. The switch is part of a nationwide effort to curb teenage obesity and unhealthy eating habits.

Jeff's daughters all visited the dentist for their regular checkup yesterday. Brooklyn (top photo) had impressions made of her teeth (the mold is pictured in middle photo). She had two small cavities that will be filled later. Meantime, River (bottom photo) and London each had one cavity, both of which happened to be on the same tooth.

Several dozen cases of E. coli bacterial infections have been reported across the country in recent weeks. At least two people have died, including one young boy in Utah. Officials attributed the outbreak to contaminated fresh spinach grown at certain farms in California. Nationwide, bags of fresh spinach were pulled from supermarket shelves, and people were told not to eat any until it was once again safe to eat the leafy vegetable. The above picture is being circulated via e-mail as sort of a morbid joke (the cartoon character Popeye, known to be an avid spinach eater, is shown here lying in a coffin).

Coral's right ankle, which she injured while getting off the Carousel at Lagoon on July 6 (see the July 17 blog entry), turned out to be broken, according to X-rays taken nearly two weeks later on July 18. She had a cast put on it the following day, just prior to heading up to Island Park, Idaho for a family reunion. Check back next week for photos of Penny's family's Idaho trip, including a visit to Yellowstone National Park across the border in Wyoming.

Brooklyn had her annual eye exam at the optometrist's office today, and was given a new prescription for her glasses, which hopefully will be ready in their new frames by tomorrow.

River, who turns 7 next month, lost her third tooth last week, and the first from off the top row. She put the tooth under her pillow and got both a $1 coin and a 50-cent piece from the tooth fairy (the dollar coin was one of the large ones minted from 1971-78 with Dwight D. Eisenhower's image on the obverse, and the 50-cent piece was a "bicentennial" coin minted in 1976).

Two local emergency medical technicians visited Brooklyn's Girl Scout troop meeting yesterday and did a demonstration of their portable electrocardiograph (ECG or EKG) machine, which prints out on a real-time graph the patient's heart rate and the heart's electric activity. Brooklyn was still wearing three adhesive electrodes when she showed the printout to her dad. She said the graph jumped slightly when she laughed during the demonstration.

Cindy broke her wrist recently when she fell off a porch. The bone shattered, requiring surgery, metal plates and screws, and a graft from the other bone in her lower arm. She'll have her arm in a sling and bandages for the next several weeks. Get well soon!

Jeff's 4-year-old niece Rachel, who lives in the Tokyo area, broke her hand recently while bowling with her parents. She accidentally dropped her bowling ball on her hand and fractured it. She'll have to wear a cast for the next few weeks.

Jeff's family all got flu shots at the local health department the other day. Last year, there was a nationwide shortage of vaccines, and none of Jeff's family received the seasonal immunizations against influenza. This year, however, all four kids plus Jeff and Penny got their shots (and had their pictures taken while doing so).

Brooklyn, River, and London all went in to visit the dentist for their regular checkup last week. None of the girls had any cavities. They also received new toothbrushes.

Moab's hot and dry climate presents challenges to residents and tourists each year, particularly during the summer months. In the past two months, two visitors -- a bicyclist and a hiker -- have died of dehydration in separate incidents on trails in the Moab area. This week, an employee of a nearby store collapsed from apparent heat exhaustion. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital and is expected to fully recover. Visitors and Moab residents are reminded to drink plenty of water (at least 2 liters per day -- 4 liters if doing strenuous outdoor activity) and to stay out of the hot sun for extended periods of time.

River has been sick all week with conjunctivitis in her right eye. This type of infection, commonly known as "pink eye," is an infection of the eye's outermost layer, called the conjunctiva. Conjunctivitis may be viral, allergic, or bacterial.  River's infection appears to be bacterial and is being treated with antibiotic eye drops. Pink eye infections, which are highly contagious, can result in a variety of other symptoms, including headaches, nausea, dizziness, and cold-like symptoms.