Busy, busy, busy

I always think things are going to slow down, but it appears I'm only tormenting myself with the thought of it. Thankfully, we've had a lot of fun things going on, and that makes it all worthwhile. This past Friday, after Melanie, Paula, and I pulled off a successful teacher appreciation luncheon for 103 people, Dave and I and the kids traveled to sunny St. George (80+ degrees = me happy) for my cousin Justin and his beautiful wife Bri's wedding reception. The kids got to help with napkins and gifts, and Dave was an official ice cream server along with my dad and uncle Steve. They were the life of the party, and I can't BELIEVE I didn't get a picture. Lame.

Justin is in the United States Marines and honestly, in my boys' eyes, he could not possibly get any cooler. He was helping them work on their serious soldier faces.
I remember when Justin was born, so this whole getting married thing is a little weird for me, but he and Bri are very happy and so cute together. We're so happy for them.

Our family with the happy couple ... plus my cousin Mason on the far left. Mason has Down Syndrome, and he LOVES Dave. He writes Dave letters and loves it when we come to visit. He follows Dave everywhere and just chats away. Dave is his favorite, and it is SO CUTE. There was no way he was missing out on the picture.
London with the beautiful bride. Bri was nice enough to let London hold her bouquet and take her own picture with her.
After the reception, we changed into play clothes for a quick stop by the outlets and then on to the park for a game of soccer and playing on the playground at 9:00 at night. It was warm and nice and SO FUN. I love St. George.
T.J. and Jackson played at the park while Austin and I schooled Dave and London at soccer.

Jackson is such a good brother and is always so willing to play with T.J. and make sure he's having fun.
If it hadn't gotten dark, they would have played all night.
T.J. loving staying up WAY late playing, playing, playing. Sometimes I forget he's only 4 ... like when he's at a park at 10:00 p.m.
Dave and my dad took the kids hiking around behind Grandma and Grandpa's house in Ivins on Saturday morning.
They came back covered in red dirt, but they said it was worth it.
Dave and his kiddos. I'm so glad he's a hands-on Dad and loves to hike and play with his kids. They LOVE it ... and he does too.
Ewwww.
Grandpa loves to hike around with the kids too. He apparently captured the creature in the picture above for the kids. Thanks Dad.
The boys had a piano recital a few weeks ago. It was their first one, and they did great. They were both kind of nervous. They haven't been taking piano for too long, but they're doing great and learning a lot.
The front porch swing. T.J.'s favorite napping spot. Mine too actually. I love it when he just decides he's tired and lays down for a snooze. Could he get any CUTER?!!
T.J. wanted to play X-Men and was trying to figure out how to be Wolverine. I heard him rustling around in the pantry, and this is what he came up with. Not bad.
London turned 7 in April. She wanted a bigger bike SOOOO bad, so she was pretty happy about her new bike. I can't believe she's 7 already! She's growing up way too fast. She's grown a lot this last year. She's been working extra hard on her reading in school and is doing great! She set a goal a while back ago to get 100% on all her spelling tests, and she's done it for four months in a row. She's a good helper to me and does just fine keeping up with her brothers. She's playing baseball for the first time and really enjoys it. She's learning a lot in school and is looking forward to being a big 2nd grader in the fall and getting baptized next year. We sure love her and all the excitement she brings to our home.
London wanted to go to Chucky Cheese for her birthday, but Dave and I distinctly remembered their food being disgusting, so we suggested Pirate Island instead, and she went for it. Great move. Their pizza is really good, and the atmosphere is FANTASTIC! They have arcade games, balloon animals, and a little playground. The kids LOVED it and can't wait to go back.
T.J. playing with his monkey balloon animal.
Our pirate waitresses singing happy birthday to London. She was a little embarrassed but loved the ice cream they brought her.
T.J. has radar for trains. He can see and hear a train before any of the rest of us can. He LOVES trains. He heard this little train making a train-like noise from halfway across the restaurant and searched around til he found it .... and he was very happy once he did.
The boys favorite game at the arcade.
This is the WORST thing ever invented. Racking up tickets on arcade games to cash them in for THE STUPIDEST JUNK EVER. Not only that, but it takes FIVE HOURS to decide on exactly which stupid junk to spend the tickets on. Nothing in the whole case was worth more than 5 cents, but I spent 20 minutes trying to divide it up between four kids, including one birthday girl. SERIOUSLY?!!!
This is the entrance to the arcade area. I'm telling ya ... this place is really cool and way decked out. It reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Ahhhh ... Disneyland. Hmmm.
The whole gang with a pirate. Very cool.
After Pirate Island, we headed up to Laura and Kalani's house. Their daughter Autumn's birthday is the day after London's, so they had a party together, and Laura had the awesome idea to rent horses for the afternoon. They came to Laura's house and the kids went for rides over and over again. They loved it.
I don't think T.J. has ever been on a full-size horse before. It took some talking to get him off. He loved it!
Jackson and Austin were good sports. They had a nice time with the horses but weren't too sure about the dorky helmets.


London was Student of the Month in April. Good job London! She has loved her teacher this year. Mrs. Frampton has spent a lot of extra time with London on her reading, and it has definitely paid off. It's been fun to see her improve and get excited about reading.
Austin participated in the Hope of America performance along with about 8,000 other 5th graders from Alpine School District. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it was a remarkable night. I love the kids getting involved in patriotic things and understanding what it means to be part of this country. I want them to feel the sense of gratitude and pride that I feel at being a part of this great nation. One of their songs was about being grateful for the military and the sacrifices made on our behalf, and it was accompanied by a slide show. It was really touching. There is so much negativity in our country right now, and really all around us. I want my kids to understand that we still need to be grateful and still need to have perspective, and above all, we have a reason to hope. It's so easy to get caught up in the bickering and nonsense and forget that we live in a promised land of freedom and so many of the things we take for granted every day are more than so many in the world could even dream to have.
Austin worked hard all year learning the songs and actions for the performance. It was fun to see him all excited about their performance, and it truly was a great night! Can't wait to go again next year with Jackson as a fifth grader.
We went bowling a while back with the Mortons for all the March Birthdays (my family has an overabundance of them). The kids, as usual, had a great time. And Jackson, as usual, is pulling faces at the camera for some unknown reason.
T.J. and Chase enjoyed some time "thinking" they were playing video games. And again with Jackson in the background. Don't ask.
Austin and Colby were stuck with the serious bowlers (Dad, Dave, and Brady) - no messin around on this lane.
Melanie, Kati, Mom and I supervised the kid lane. We put the bumper pads up for Melanie, and the kids decided to use them too. They had lots of fun rolling the ball down the lane. We had some close calls with balls almost rolling back towards us due to low velocity, but after a while Melanie picked up her speed. I wasn't cleared for bowling yet after my surgery, so mostly I just made fun of ..... you guessed it - Melanie.

And one last picture .... just in case you forgot how handsome he is. :)

Thank goodness that's behind me

It's been a while since I've posted, and I want to update everyone on just how our family is doing. First of all, I am doing MUCH better. The two and a half weeks of bed rest were ROUGH to put it mildly, but thanks to amazing friends and family, WE MADE IT, and it is thankfully behind us FOREVER. Dave and I have been completely overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of people all around us. We could not believe how many people cared enough to call, stop by for a visit, send a card, e-mail or Facebook a message, make us yummy treats, send a gift, take restless kids for hours on end (or days at a time), help out with laundry, come over after getting their own kids ready for school and get my kids ready and off to school, take over my carpool responsibilities, bring books and magazines and movies to keep me entertained, bring flowers, stop by the store for groceries, bring us dinner, be my resident nurse, do laundry and cleaning, help out with both of our church callings, make us cookies and cake, do homework with my kids, take care of piano and scouts for my kids, drive me to doctor's appointments, bring ice cream and chocolate, and just check in with us over and over and over again to see if we needed anything or to let us know that you cared. I am of course bawling as I sit here typing this. We are surrounded by some truly amazing people, and we are so grateful. As goofy as it sounds, we could not have done it without you, your strength and help and prayers carried us through. Thank you.

Six weeks after surgery, I am feeling better than I have felt in years in a lot of ways. My body is healing and is just about back to normal. My doctor is happy with how everything is going and says I'm healing up very well. The actual recovery time for the procedures I had is six to nine months for complete recovery, and there's a few things slowing me down a bit, but for the most part, I'm feeling really good. Even the unbelievable tiredness is almost completely gone. Only five and a half more weeks until I can get back on my bike ... but who's counting?!!

Those first several weeks were so difficult. The ability to have surgery and have the body repaired is an amazing thing, and I'm so grateful for it, but it involves some serious pain and side-effects. It just simply takes a while for your body to figure things out after being messed with THAT much. And as you all very well know, patience is really not my thing. Being in bed for that long is so miserable. Hearing my family and my life go on without me outside my bedroom door was really hard on me. Not having control over really anything was probably good for me but hard to let happen. Feeling so tired and groggy and sore was frustrating. I hated feeling like I couldn't take care of myself or my family. But all of this was such a small moment compared to the rest of my life, and it feels great to look back and see that it is behind me, behind all of us. I'm grateful for my health and my strength. I'm grateful to be feeling better in time for SPRING! Being in bed during the miserable cold March we had is a whole different story than being down when the weather is actually NICE out and the sun is shining. I'm grateful for modern medicine and technology and a capable, competent, caring doctor.

Most of all, I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful I was able to bring four beautiful amazing children into this world before that ability slipped away. I'm grateful to be their mom in spite of all my body had to go through to make it happen. I'm grateful for a patient and loving husband who has stood by my side through countless hours of sickness and pain and recovery time in our nearly 14 years of marriage. I'm grateful to be surrounded by amazing people and to know that I am loved.

Wow

(I realize that this post contains too much information ... actually WAY too much information. Just so you know. Sorry about that, but since I'm using this blog as kind of a journal, that's just the way it has to be this time and surprisingly I want to remember this.)

So the big day came on March 4th. It was a long time coming for sure, but that didn't make it coming any easier. All the anticipation made an anxiety-ridden stress case the week leading up to my surgery. I had this weird nervous energy thing going on ... kind of like the nesting that supposedly happens in the last stages of pregnancy, which is weird for me since I NEVER had that with any of my pregnancies. I sat there and waited impatiently and ate and complained. I NEVER nested. So this nervous energy was annoying but somewhat productive. I got all the laundry done, house cleaned, arrangements made for the kids, books and movies gathered, laptop ordered, shopping done, etc., and still looked for projects to keep me from thinking/worrying. I even organized London's drawer of endless markers and checked each one carefully to make sure it worked, tossing out all the dried out markers. Yes folks, it was that bad.

I had so many encouraging words from family and friends, and I will always be grateful for that. Those many kind words and thoughtful gestures really helped to ease my mind, and I'm grateful for all of you.

I had to be on a liquid diet for 24 hours and do a few other "surgical prep" type things the day before. It took it's toll and I passed out that night ... thankfully with Dave there to catch me. Not a good sign ... but definitely a sign of things to come. Yuck.

After not sleep really at all, we got up and 4:45 a.m. and arrived at the hospital at 6:00, got started on anesthesia, and headed into surgery around 8:00 after a send-off from Dave and my dad. The surgery took several hours since I had so many things done. Dave got some sporadic updates in the waiting room and tried to keep everyone posted. By noon I was in my room and woke up to Dave there waiting over me ... just like I knew he would be. I don't remember really anything from the rest of that day, but Dr. Parker apparently came in shortly after to tell us that the surgery went well. I lost less blood than anticipated and didn't have to have a transfusion ... good news. As we had discussed prior to surgery, the anesthesiologist gave me a spinal injection before leaving the operating room that was supposed to provide pain relief for at least 12 hours (and possibly as many as 24). Just my luck - it wore completely off in 90 minutes. Great. I remember being in a lot of pain through that night, but I don't remember much else. That's probably good.

The next day (Friday) was the real test. Since I had my bladder repaired during surgery, I still had a catheter. It was taken out to see if my bladder would work by itself. It didn't. Not at all. I wasn't feeling well at all, which frankly probably had something to do with the six different medications I was being given at that point. I hadn't eaten much in over two days and just felt so sick. My nurses would come in and beg me to eat a cracker so the medication didn't upset my stomach. Have you ever tried to eat a cracker at 2:00 a.m.?!! Not possible. It took me 30 minutes to get the cracker down and by that time the medication had already made me sick. AHHHH!!!! Unfortunately I didn't have the presence of mind to ask for something I could have actually swallowed (i.e., applesauce, Jell-O). Can somebody please remind me of that next time ... which hopefully there will NEVER BE. Also, I'm never eating crackers again. Or at least not for a long time.

Anyway, just getting up and getting to the bathroom was too much, and I passed out. I'll tell you what ... you want to see people FREAK OUT, try passing out in a hospital. The one nurse who was there when I went out was now surrounded by all kinds of medical personnel who seemed to appear out of thin air. The weird thing about me passing out is that I can hear everything going on around me. Even weirder is that I think I'm talking and answering people's frantic questions of "Can you hear me?" or "Are you with us?" I think I'm talking, but according to reliable witnesses, I apparently am not saying anything at all. But I can hear everyone, including the nurse's call for "I NEED A CRASH TEAM IN HERE STAT!" Excuse me?!!

So back to bed and catheter back in. The original plan was for me to go home this day, but Dr. Parker came in and gently said, "I don't think so" to that plan. My mom came and stayed with me while Dave went and saw a few of his own patients. She spent a ton of time at the hospital with me, and I'm so grateful she was there. That afternoon again I was feeling sicker than ever and started dry heaving, which when you have the amount of incisions I had, is ridiculously painful and honestly I felt like I was going to split apart. So dry heaving leads to horrible pain which leads to .... passing out. Give me a break! I passed out reclining in a bed! I was barely even sitting up. Again, the panic from everybody. So another night in the hospital for me.

Dave stayed there with me every night and all day every day (except when he went to see a few of his own patients). He was so patient and watchful and took such good care of me ... as always. I can't even count the hours he's spent by my bedside in a hospital. He never complained and jumped right up every time I needed something and did his best to comfort and distract me through the pain and setbacks. He even watched some teenage cheerleading movie on TV with me in the hospital and didn't even complain (or try to change the channel when I kept falling asleep). I sure do love him. We had visits from family and friends who were so supportive and kind and didn't even make fun of my bed-head hair ... even though I'm sure that was hard to resist.

The next morning I was feeling somewhat better, so we decided to try taking out the catheter. Again, not much luck. Catheter back in. So lame. That evening though, I was feeling good enough to get up, so we did and went for a short walk. I walked probably 20 feet and passed out on the way back. AHHHH!!! Thankfully Dave was on one side and my dad was on the other, so I was in good hands. Back to bed for me and another night in the hospital. Apparently I didn't realize just how much this surgery had taken out of me. Fainting is not unusual for me, but three times in 48 hours does happen to be a record. After this time, a heart specialist came up from the ICU and hooked me up to a 12-lead monitor and watched it from a screen in the ICU. So that was nice ... exactly what I needed - more hoses, tubes, monitors, and sticky tape. Very comfortable. Fantastic. Thankfully, no more passing out for me, and apparently my heart is in great shape. Well, that's good news.

By Sunday evening, I was dying to go home. I had refused to take the medications that day because they were making me so sick! I chose pain over nausea which I'd do again in a heartbeat. Nausea is the WORST! Then nausea was causing a whole other string of events that was keeping me in the hospital. I couldn't even think straight, and the nurses were just following orders and giving the medicine to me on a schedule. I knew I couldn't be sick anymore, so I stopped the nausea by stopping the pain medication. That helped, and Dr. Parker agreed to let me go home ... but with a catheter. We were trying to avoid that for the kids' sake, but they took it in stride. So home we came after four days. We survived. So began two weeks of bed rest ... more about that later. I need a nap.

What's new with us

Usually I spend my time during the winter pining away for summer and wishing and hoping for warmer days. Don't get me wrong, I am of course doing this, but we have also been insanely busy with fun things, and I may have even been a little distracted from my dislike of winter ... though not for long. I miss my bike and of course there's the swimming pool ... sigh.

Last month Austin participated in the fifth grade wax museum at his school. When he came home and told me about his assignment to select a subject, read a biography/autobiography, come up with a costume, make a poster, and memorize facts about this person's life, I figured we better stay away from the typical subjects (i.e., politicians, historical figures, founding fathers) or it was going to be like pulling teeth all the way through the project. So after a little brainstorming, Austin and I came up with Steve Young. Perfect. The biography was devoured, the costume was a big hit, and he already had a bunch of trivia about his life memorized. I love it when he actually wants to do his homework. Good job Austin!

Paula and I tackled SEP dinners for the PTA minus the brains of the operation (Melanie) while she was off on a well-deserved cruise in the Caribbean soaking up some sun. We enlisted some help (thanks Monica, Mindy, Angela, Becky, and my mom!) and survived, though the week was completely insane from beginning to end. I think it turned out pretty well considering we fed between 70 and 80 people two nights in a row. Woah.

With three kids playing basketball, we're just about over our limit of BUSY! I'm coaching Jackson's team, so that makes it even crazier. Jackson's team was in desperate need of a coach, so I called up our friend Aaron and agreed to be assistant coach if he'd agree to be coach which he did. My plan worked our perfectly until Aaron decided to turn his life upside down and go back to school. That left me as coach. Woah. Thanks to lots of help and a bunch of great kids, it's going well. Austin and London are enjoying basketball as well and working hard. We'll be done with our season in a few weeks ... three more games ... but who's counting?!!

And finally, after years of trouble, medications and alternative treatments tried and failed, and nearly a year of testing and restesting, Dave and I, along with my trusted doctor (and the second opinion of two other physicians and a specialist) have decided to go ahead with a hysterectomy, bladder repair, and two reconstructive surgeries that will hopefully, hopefully, hopefully solve all the problems I've been having. Some of these things have been going on for nearly 10 years and others for 4 or 5 years. I'm done. It's not ever going to get any better on its own, and there's never going to be a time in my life when this will be easy. It is scheduled for March 4th and afterwards, I am not able to do anything at all for two weeks - what in the world?!! And then there are several more weeks and possibly months after that before I'm back to being "me" again. I was hoping to wait until T.J. was in school, but at this point, time is of the essence. I'm young. I'm relatively healthy and active. It has to be now or risk it getting worse ... which it already has. It has been a tough decision, but we're grateful for the support of friends and family and we're very hopeful that it will work and that I'll feel much better in a few months.

I'm so grateful for all the kind words of support and encouragement we've already heard and the many offers for help taking care of my family. It's a scary thing to have a mom out of commission for any length of time, and my kids are definitely feeling apprehensive and nervous, and I can't blame them. So there you go, we're stressed, we're nervous, we're scared, but we're also peaceful and hopeful about our decision. Here we go.

That's MUCH better

I posted a recipe a while back for pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. We LOVE them! But, they were a little heavy and looked weird and lumpy. So today when I made them, I added a cup of water to the recipe ... HUGE DIFFERENCE! They were light and fluffy and looked like those in the picture above when they were done. Very cool. So I thought I better share that piece of information. Enjoy. Here is the revised recipe:

1 pkg spice cake mix
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1 cup water
1/2 bag mini chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for 24-25 minutes.

Woah.

As expected, our December was COMPLETELY INSANE! So, I haven't blogged for a while, and I HATE trying to catch up on a ton of stuff. So, let's make this quick and painless, and I'll try to do better at keeping current.

First of all, our kids' orthodontist does a drawing a few times a year where the kids get to guess how much of something is in a jar and if they come the closest, they win the jar and its contents. Well Austin (without any help) guessed that the jar contained $85, and guess what ... it had $84.81 in it. So we had one very excited 11-year-old on our hands. He's saving his money to see if a Wii game is developed for the Percy Jackson book series.

Jackson performed in the Christmas Carol musical at school this year. He worked very hard at rehearsal for almost two months and had a great time performing for the school as well as two evening performances for family and friends. Way to go Jacks!

While I was out Christmas shopping, Dave and half the neighborhood took advantage of the first big snowfall and made a great big snowman. It looks pretty FREEZING to me, but they said they had a great time and couldn't wait to show me when I got home.

T.J. (previously a little frightened of the jolly old fellow) got acquainted with four Santas this year ... and didn't suspect a thing. We had a little scare with one of them when T.J. asked for a dog. After asking Santa to clarify with him, we discovered it to be a stuffed animal dog he was after. Phew!

Right before Christmas, we wrapped up our BYU football season with a Las Vegas Bowl party. Thankfully, the Cougars took care of business and we had a great night with family and friends. Kati even came all the way from Washington D.C. to cheer the Cougars on with us ... or maybe she was home for Christmas. Something like that.

The kids were as hyper as can be by the time Christmas Eve rolled around, and I wasn't about to cook anything, so we headed out to dinner at Wingers and off to Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was a pretty cute movie, and the kids LOVED it.

The obligatory Christmas Eve kids in pajamas in front of the tree picture. Man I have cute kids.

You might say I'm a bit of a spoiler on Christmas. Even if it's little stuff, I like a lot of presents to open. I just think that's the funnest part ... watching the kids' reactions and seeing them all excited. I love surprising them. Austin and Jackson's favorite things were their new Wii games. They've been BEGGING for Madden 10 and Super Smash Brothers Brawl FOREVER, so it was fun to see how happy they were.

Dave managed to surprise me (very hard to do) with a few things, including some new weights and a Borders Books gift card. I'm excited to go browse a book store ALL BY MYSELF and not worry about looking for a used copy of the book on Ebay like I usually do when I find something I want to read. I had asked for an elliptical for Christmas but couldn't wait and got it a few months ago ... Merry Christmas to me! I LOVE it. I got Dave an Olympic size bar and 260 pounds in free weights for his bench we got a few months ago. He's wanted a bench and weights since we got married I think, so it was fun to see how excited he was about that.

London and T.J. had a really fun Christmas morning. These two had some pretty simple requests: a horse stuffed animal and a dog stuff animal. Works for me. They were really excited about their Alvin and the Chipmunks stuffed animals as well. And T.J. of course was ECSTATIC about his Bendaroos. Those things have turned out to be funner than I thought, so I might have to take back all the making fun I did of them ... but probably not. We got the Toy Story Mania Wii game and we spent our Christmas vacation playing that. We even had Grandma and Grandpa Morton over for New Years, and they loved playing it. That game is a lot of fun! Jackson is the master champion at all things video game in our house, including the Toy Story game, but I'm slowly whittling away at his high scores. I'll get him.

We found a great sledding spot on the golf course in Eagle Mountain, a nice long hill with some jumps, and NO ONE was there. Perfect.







Dave apparently thinks he's still a kid. We heard about this jump for days:





Somewhere in the middle of all that, we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. I couldn't be happier about that. Dave turned 35, and he's handling that pretty well. We spent time with family and friends, played games, had fun, and ate and ate and ate. We saw a lot of movies:


Melanie and I took all nine kiddos to this movie, and we still managed to laugh all the way through it. Don't underestimate this movie. It's funny.

We really liked this one. Morgan Freeman was AMAZING as Nelson Mandella, and the story is incredible. Great movie.


We've seen this one twice already, and it is definitely entertaining. Great movie. It made me want to go back and read the Sherlock Holmes stories.

This one is our absolute FAVORITE movie we saw this season! We saw it two weekends in a row. Actually it's the best movie either one of us has seen in a really long time. Great story, great acting, excellent message. We HIGHLY recommend it!