Aaron's microscope

Many of you have probably heard that Aaron was inventing his own kind of microscope. Here's the story about it:

At work, anyone can start the machines that run the tests. Only Techs can accept the results, but with their computer network, the Tech doesn't have to be standing in a particular lab. Someone in Pendleton can accept results off of a machine in Portland. The only thing that a Tech has to be in the lab to do is to look in a microscope and view slides. There is no way to do that remotely.

Aaron is the manager over the Med Techs here in Pendleton at the lab, but he also is kind of over other places too. If someone in Twin Falls takes a vacation and Boise can't fill the slot, then it's up to Aaron to find someone to fill it. If no one can, then Aaron gets to go to Twin Falls to fill it. Well this happened last year. No one could go, so Aaron got to be the one to go. He spent a whole week down in Twin Falls, just to look into a microscope 4 times. Yes, he did other work and stayed busy that whole week, but if he had a microscope that could be run remotely, then he wouldn't have had to spend that week in Twin Falls. That spurred a thought. He started looking online, and found some microscopes that could work, but they cost about $100,000 each and he wanted about 10. So then he decided that he was going to make his own. That was around September 11, 2010.


This was a long process, but we felt that we were guided as we went along. Where we ended up was nowhere close to where we started. On August 2, he was able to bring the microscope into work. A phlebotomist can put a slide on the microscope stage, and Aaron (or someone else) can get on their computer in Pendleton, see the slide (digital microscope eyepiece) and control the microscope with their computer.

Aaron built the microsope and I got to help figure out how to make it work. I didn't have to actually program anything, but I found the software and circuit board on the Internet and learned how to use them.

The computer department now needs to look at it and see what they need to do to get it to work on their Internet line.

Calista's First Day of School!

It finally came! Calista has been waiting for a full year for this day, and she was so excited last Thursday to go to Kindergarten!!! Earlier that week we went to the store and picked out a backpack (Barbie) and lunch box.

Pilot Rock has full day Kindergarten every other day, so Calista's days are Tuesday and Thursdays. She was a little bummed that her friend Eli gets to go on Monday and Wednesday, but I think they might be better friends this way. Calista has been a very good "mother" to him, and he might enjoy some freedom! Usually they separate the Kindergarteners for a few weeks to get the rules down, and then they join the classes for the rest of the year. However there are so many this year, that it looks like she will stay on the T TH schedule for the whole year. I'm a little disappointed because I think I've gotten Calista about as far as I know how, but I guess I will learn more this year too.

She came home from school Thursday just as excited as she had left that morning. It was a great day. She told me who got to keep their stars up and who had to take their stars down. She listed all the rules that "teacher" had told her, and she and another kid were the only ones that earned an "R" card for good behavior. It looks like she's going to have a great year!!!

I forgot to take pictures of Samuel and Jacque on their first day of school, but I remembered to take a picture of all of them on Calista's first day. I just happened to delete it just before putting it onto my computer. So I will have to take another picture of them hopefully tomorrow.

Samuel's getting into blogging

Samuel was playing with dominoes and then said, "Look mom!" "Hey can you take a picture and put it on your blog!" I was busy making bread so I told him that he could get my camera and take a picture. So he did! Here's his masterpiece!!

My Big Helper

Samuel is a great helper. He will rock Sarah to sleep at nap times, wake up with Sarah early in the mornings so I can sleep in, cook pancakes for breakfast, make cookies (including putting them in and taking them out of the oven), and doing just about anything else that needs done or helping anyone else who needs helped. He really loves to help in the kitchen. After I was done putting the flour in the bosche he wanted to play in the flour pan. I told him he could if he would put the flour into the jar when he was done. He agreed and after a few minutes, he brought me over his masterpiece:

Then he asked me to put it on my blog! He really likes to let people see what he's done!

Sarah's and her cupcakes

These are Sarah's birthday cupcakes! We invited some friends over for cupcakes, ice cream and playing. Of course these friends were our kids' ages and their parents, but Sarah had a lot of fun too!

We did put a candle in it and sing to her, but I didn't trust her with the cupcake until the candle was removed. We let a friend blow the candle out for her.

I liked these next pictures. She was very interested in this "thing" she was holding onto. I don't know if she ever took a bite, other than sucking the frosting off of her fingers.

She did it!

Ellen was funny this last week. She didn't like us taking off her band-aid, but we had to every day to put new neosporin on it. I took it off three times and Aaron did it once. For some reason she connected Aaron with taking the band-aid off. As he walked in the front door one night after work, she immediately covered her band-aid. He wasn't even looking at her. And she kept her hand there for five to ten minutes until we convinced her that we didn't have to change the band-aid again. Throughout the week, if Aaron looked at her or asked her to come to him, up went the hand.


Ellen finally got her stitches out yesterday. Our doctor brought his stuff to church and they just went into an extra room after church. Aaron went in with her this time! She walks in the room, sees Aaron and the Dr. there and as the door is closing I see her cover her eye! It didn't take long before they open the door again and the stitches are out. She didn't cry at all! What a tough girl. I asked Aaron how it went later and he said that she started getting nervous when she saw the tweezers, but our doctor showed her that he uses the tweezers for picking up gauze and thing like that. That seemed to ease her mind. They asked her to lay her head on Aaron's lap and close her eyes. As they took the stitches out she started giggling because they kind of tickled. When she was done Aaron gave her a treat that he had gotten from Priesthood class, and comes out the door with a big smile on her face!

Sarah is 1

Today is my little Sarah's birthday! A month ago she finally stopped army crawling and went to the regular crawl. She was never in a hurry to reach any of the landmark steps. As an example, she learned to sit up before she could roll over from either tummy or back, which was more around the 5 1/2 month mark. So I figured that she'd be more like Ellen and not try and walk until 14 months or so. But sometime when we were at Tonya's at the beginning of July, she decided that walking might be fun. Every time I tried to put her down, she would straighten her legs and grab my hands tight, wanting to go walking. Then she started letting go and balancing for a few seconds. This last week and a half she started trying to take steps. Her best is 16 steps from me to Aaron! It's fun to open my door in the morning and see this cute little girl standing there, holding onto the wall. She is such a good little girl and we are very grateful to have her in our family. Happy Birthday Sarah!!!