TV Trouble

Just over a week ago, Rebecca and I sat down to watch a movie after getting the kids to bed.  About five minutes into the movie, we heard a loud pop and then a constant whirring noise coming from the TV.  We also noticed that the display was now black and white.

As a gadget geek, I immediately saw this as an opportunity!  We've had this 50" rear-projection DLP TV for about five years now and I don't know how much longer the bulb is going to last, so I saw this as a prime opportunity to get a new TV.  Costco had some nice Vizio LED-backlit LCDs  in the 47"-55" range that were looking mighty tempting.  However, I did a quick search on the internet and found that the likely cause of our TV problems was a bad color wheel.  This part can be had for about $110 and the guides for replacing the part seemed pretty detailed and straightforward.  So rather than spend $1500+ on a new TV, I decided to attempt to repair it myself.

Today the replacement color wheel arrived, so I delved into the innards of our TV and was able to replace it without causing irreparable damage to myself or the TV.  When I finally got to the color wheel itself and lifted off the mount, this is what I found:

Nice huh?  This is what the color wheel is supposed to look like (broken on the left, new on the right):

So after a week without our TV(and Wii Fit and DDR3), it's finally working again!

Quick update

Rebecca took Eli in to our pediatrician for a blood test yesterday to see how he was doing. The petechiae have all disappeared and nearly all of his bruises have faded. Even his black eye is hardly visible! Today, the pediatrician called back with the results: 188,000! Normal platelet level is above 150,000, so he's doing great.

The next step is to taper off his steroid. We'll start doing that in a couple of days and hopefully everything will go well.

Thanks again to all the support and prayers that were offered on Eli's behalf. We really appreciate it!

Ice Skating with the Young Women!

The first week in January we took the Young Women ice skating. It was cold, but fun. (It's a good thing we brought hot chocolate!)

Megan, Sam and Britany


Taylar, Meghan and Amy. These three did not skate but we were glad they came and had a fun time anyway.


The South Jordan library has a fountain just outside it that they freeze in the winter and open for ice skating. They also have The Pie pizzeria right there so we had to buy a giant pizza to share with all the girls.


Shaylee and the friend she brought.


Savannah and the friend she brought.


Madison, Kayla and Kailee.


and last, but not least, two of my amazing fellow leaders. (Lindsay was there too but sat in the car with her little baby)

Richardson's Caricatures

Back in December we went to the mall to see my uncle Owen. He draws caricatures so we wanted him to do one for each of us.

He asked the boys what they wanted to be doing in their pictures and Isaac chose flying without a parachute and Joseph chose to be a Jedi Knight.


Kate wanted to be a princess. (not a surprise)


and Eli loves balls so he was a basketball player.


He even did one of Nate and me! What do you think? Does it look like us?


I love the pictures and the kids do too!
Thanks Owen!

Happy New Year

We had a relaxing New Year's Eve before all the craziness with Eli.

We went to Target for their after Christmas sale and found some fun things. One of them was this pretty tree marked down from $249.00 to $60.00 that we just had to get! (When we got home Nate wanted to set it up to see how it looked, that's why it's in the middle of the family room.)


Then we went over to the Holt's (our neighbors) for a little party and the Hansen's came too.

Nicky and Coulsen were having fun playing the Wii...


and I was tempted to try the chocolate fountain.


As you can see, Kate enjoyed the chocolate fountain!


Eli had fun too.


Kate and Eli doing puzzles with Emily.


Amanda and Isaac playing with Amanda's guitars.


Nate had a little too much fun with the sparkling cider!


We played one of our favorite games: Compatibility, as well as Catch Phrase and Fact or Crap. (excuse me)


and Joseph was so tired by the time midnight came around that he fell asleep on the couch!

Eli's home!

Eli was able to come home today since his platelet count was 22,000 this morning.  We still have to keep a close eye on him, but it looks like he's going in the right direction.  We're grateful for all the love and support we've felt from family and friends.  We are truly blessed to know all of you!  Thanks!

The first night he was in the hospital, I only had my inferior camera phone to take pictures.  These photos that Rebecca took with our other camera give you a better idea of what Eli's poor body was going through.

 

Update on Eli

Eli's platelet count was up to 6000 today. He was at 3000 Sunday night, which is why they wanted to keep him at the hospital last night. Normal range is 150,000 to 450,000 per cubic millimeter. They had told us at the Urgent Care facility that he'd have to have a transfusion if he dropped below 20,000, but so far they haven't felt the need to give him one at the hospital. They've been giving him an oral steroid along with an antibiotic for his ear infection and an antacid to counteract the heartburn that the steroid can cause.

He's still in good spirits, though Rebecca said he's getting a little stir crazy from being cooped up in a hospital room all day. I'm sure Rebecca's feeling restless as well! She asked if they could walk around the hospital a bit and the nurse said that would be fine if Eli wore a mask. Well, Eli would have none of that, so they stayed in the room. I took the Nintendo DS and his favorite game, Nintendogs, to the hospital today and he seemed to enjoy that. He even managed to win a disc competition with minimal help from me. That's pretty impressive for a kid who turns two next month!

Hopefully we'll have some more good news tomorrow and Rebecca and Eli will be able to come home. It sounds like he'll be on the steroid treatment for a while after he comes home until his platelet levels normalize. At that point they'll see what effect a lesser dose has on his platelet count. For now, I'm just trying to keep up with our other three kids at home!