Because when I tried to photograph my beautiful children this is the best I got :o)
Hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas!!!
Hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas!!!
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Not a Typical December Day
Yes, Christmas tree went up before we carved our pumpkins. But they are both done :o)
As you all know, life around here has been a bit crazy for the last few months. We got a bit behind (okay, more than a bit.) So today we had "P" day for preschool. P is for Pumpkin.
Back in October while the kids were with their wonderful Grandparents in Washinton they got to go pick pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. Unfortunatly, they brought those beauties home and they have been displayed by the front door uncarved since then. The kids LOVE these pumpkins and have no concept of time or concern for seasons or holidays so they ask quite frequently when we are going to carve them. Well, it's December 4th and we finally did it.
The kids drew faces and I did my best to recreate them in a carvable way on the pumpkin. Other than Shayne thinking it was "dangerous" and refusing to put his hand in the the slimy opened by not yet cleaned pumpkin, this was a fun and successful activity. We should have put santa or christmas trees on the pumpkins, but oh well. If you drive by and wonder who the crazies are with Jack O Lanterns on their porch in December, that's us. We just got a little behind :o) I have happy kids now and hopefully one day the pumpkins will rot and we have a good reson to throw them away. (It didn't go well when I suggested we throw them away because we were putting us Christmas decorations... maybe now that they have been carved they've sreved their purpose and can go... I hope.)
As you can tell by the fact that we are carving pumpkins and having preschool, things are going much better now. I am still months behind on most things, but gradually catching up. (I'm so sorry to all of you wonderful people who deserve thank you notes for your help, kindness or gifts in the last 4 months... I promise they will come one day!!!) We are all healthy (I don't count stuffy noses) now and no one is hospitalized... LIFE IS GOOD. Really though, things are great. We feel blessed and watched over and are happy to know that we can do hard things.
In other news, Kevin started working 4 hours/week giving immunizations at a pharmacy on the weekends, it may not be much but we are so excited for a tiny bit of green on the old budget spreadsheet (it's been a while!). He is loving the rotation he is currently completing at an independent pharmacy nearby. The people he works with are great and he is having valuable experiences and really being put to work. Also, Madi's last day of Preschool was last Friday so we are also happy to have a little more family time, and hopefully a few less meltdowns from the overtired 4 year old. (Now, I claim all the meltdowns from being overtired! :o)
Things are going well! Thanks for checking in!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
A Week We Hope Never to Repeat
All right, I've already written this and it is much too long.
Spoiler alert... here is the short version:
Paige has a cold
Shayne has a double ear infection
Madi has a hacking cough (and probably a sinus infection)
Kristen has a diseased gallbladder and needs a D&C because some placenta stuck around
Kevin has a sinus infection and bronchitis
Wahoo! Don't you want to hang out with us?
and surgery is Friday morning for Kristen.
Where to begin?...
This has been a bit of a rough period for our family... almost to the point of comedy. But I am sincerely grateful now that I have been given the gift of optimism.
We begged to get ourselves out of the NICU and soon after that we all got sick... surprise :o)
The day we went home I went to the ER dying of a gallbladder attack but the stone passed or moved or whatever happens with those pesky things so I went home after wasting several hours there.
Then life settled for a few days. We played with Grandma, life was perfect. Then she went home. That's when the terror began :o)
The colds started which is no big deal, everyone gets colds. But then colds turned to sinus infections and ear infections and Kevin even has bronchitis.
Saturday I had another rotten gallbladder attack but I didn't want to go to the hospital just to be sent home again so I fought through it at home for as long as I could but gave in as it peaked again after 6 hours. I went into the ER again, this time the Doctor did an ultrasound and found a fat inflamed gallbladder full of stones. The lab results also showed high billirubin levels (jaundice) and all the other things that indicate that there was stone blocking my bile duct. But once again, the stone moved and pain stopped. Because there wasn't immediate pain, they once again sent me home and told me to schedule surgery to have my gallbladder removed in the near future... oh, and come back if the pain starts again.
Within a few hours it was back. It wasn't as intense but the pain was increasing and now it was late at night so I didn't want Kevin to have to load the whole crew and take me. I wanted to get into the ER before it got too bad to drive but when I knew it was going to hang around, I was tired of going in and the pain leaving. The pain was bad enough I couldn't sleep but not so bad I was sure it wasn't just going to leave again. I tinkered around the house for a while then drove to the hospital. Surprise! I got there and the pain was less. I hung out and tried to sleep in the car for a bit to see if it was real or not. Eventually I checked in (by now it was Sunday morning) and the pain was pretty bad. They decided to admit me for an ERCP where they put me under and sent a scope down my throat into my small intestine to find the bile duct and hopefully remove the stone. Well, surprise surprise the stone was gone so now I just got to stay in the hospital for a day of monitoring. But on the bright side a surgeon came to visit me during my stay and we got the surgery scheduled for Friday.
Kevin is my hero. He had the kids and everyone survived. In fact, everyone was even bathed and happy. His new preceptor was also kind and let him come in late Monday as we waited for me to be discharged. I got home just in time to scoop the kids up and go see Paige's surgeon. It was a crazy day, but at least everything checked out well at the surgeons and Paige was up to a whopping 6 pounds. That was the YAY of the day!
I wish that was the end of the story... this post is getting much to long, and so was our week.
Well, Tuesday I went in for my postpartum checkup (and the plot thickens)... turns out I need a D&C too. My surgeon said it was simple and it could be combined with the cholecystectomy the problem was that he could only do it at the downtown hospital and I was scheduled at the one closer to us. Well thank goodness for an amazing doctor who treated me like his own daughter and immediately got on the phone to find another surgeon and a time when they could both do the surgery. There is a lot more to be said about that, but truly I am grateful for him and the surgeon that will be doing the gallbladder surgery. The Lord watches over us and they found a time and the one slot that was open for surgery Friday.
This post is way too long, so I won't go into any more detail, but I just want to record here how grateful I am that we don't live somewhere rural, that I have an amazing husband that can handle a 4 year old, 2 year old and new baby (even through the night), a ward that is VERY on top of our needs and doctors that are really fantastic. The situation may be less than ideal, but truly God is watching over our family. That may sound strange, but with all the details and from my perspective I really do feel blessed and protected.
Now I need to head to bed and try to rest before surgery in the morning. Oh, one more thing...
Don't feel like you need to say the right thing now, we really are okay. Rough patch, but this experience has been empowering for our family and really brought Kevin and I closer than ever. I'm grateful for the priesthood, an amazing husband and a Creator who knows my needs, my mind, my family and even my body. No need to get too personal here, just wanted you all to know we are alive and this is why I haven't been returning phone calls :o) Chaos will be under control soon... maybe :o)
Thanks for enduring the length of this post. That just saved me a lot of time explaining it to everyone individually on the phone!
Spoiler alert... here is the short version:
Paige has a cold
Shayne has a double ear infection
Madi has a hacking cough (and probably a sinus infection)
Kristen has a diseased gallbladder and needs a D&C because some placenta stuck around
Kevin has a sinus infection and bronchitis
Wahoo! Don't you want to hang out with us?
and surgery is Friday morning for Kristen.
Where to begin?...
This has been a bit of a rough period for our family... almost to the point of comedy. But I am sincerely grateful now that I have been given the gift of optimism.
We begged to get ourselves out of the NICU and soon after that we all got sick... surprise :o)
The day we went home I went to the ER dying of a gallbladder attack but the stone passed or moved or whatever happens with those pesky things so I went home after wasting several hours there.
Then life settled for a few days. We played with Grandma, life was perfect. Then she went home. That's when the terror began :o)
The colds started which is no big deal, everyone gets colds. But then colds turned to sinus infections and ear infections and Kevin even has bronchitis.
Saturday I had another rotten gallbladder attack but I didn't want to go to the hospital just to be sent home again so I fought through it at home for as long as I could but gave in as it peaked again after 6 hours. I went into the ER again, this time the Doctor did an ultrasound and found a fat inflamed gallbladder full of stones. The lab results also showed high billirubin levels (jaundice) and all the other things that indicate that there was stone blocking my bile duct. But once again, the stone moved and pain stopped. Because there wasn't immediate pain, they once again sent me home and told me to schedule surgery to have my gallbladder removed in the near future... oh, and come back if the pain starts again.
Within a few hours it was back. It wasn't as intense but the pain was increasing and now it was late at night so I didn't want Kevin to have to load the whole crew and take me. I wanted to get into the ER before it got too bad to drive but when I knew it was going to hang around, I was tired of going in and the pain leaving. The pain was bad enough I couldn't sleep but not so bad I was sure it wasn't just going to leave again. I tinkered around the house for a while then drove to the hospital. Surprise! I got there and the pain was less. I hung out and tried to sleep in the car for a bit to see if it was real or not. Eventually I checked in (by now it was Sunday morning) and the pain was pretty bad. They decided to admit me for an ERCP where they put me under and sent a scope down my throat into my small intestine to find the bile duct and hopefully remove the stone. Well, surprise surprise the stone was gone so now I just got to stay in the hospital for a day of monitoring. But on the bright side a surgeon came to visit me during my stay and we got the surgery scheduled for Friday.
Kevin is my hero. He had the kids and everyone survived. In fact, everyone was even bathed and happy. His new preceptor was also kind and let him come in late Monday as we waited for me to be discharged. I got home just in time to scoop the kids up and go see Paige's surgeon. It was a crazy day, but at least everything checked out well at the surgeons and Paige was up to a whopping 6 pounds. That was the YAY of the day!
I wish that was the end of the story... this post is getting much to long, and so was our week.
Well, Tuesday I went in for my postpartum checkup (and the plot thickens)... turns out I need a D&C too. My surgeon said it was simple and it could be combined with the cholecystectomy the problem was that he could only do it at the downtown hospital and I was scheduled at the one closer to us. Well thank goodness for an amazing doctor who treated me like his own daughter and immediately got on the phone to find another surgeon and a time when they could both do the surgery. There is a lot more to be said about that, but truly I am grateful for him and the surgeon that will be doing the gallbladder surgery. The Lord watches over us and they found a time and the one slot that was open for surgery Friday.
This post is way too long, so I won't go into any more detail, but I just want to record here how grateful I am that we don't live somewhere rural, that I have an amazing husband that can handle a 4 year old, 2 year old and new baby (even through the night), a ward that is VERY on top of our needs and doctors that are really fantastic. The situation may be less than ideal, but truly God is watching over our family. That may sound strange, but with all the details and from my perspective I really do feel blessed and protected.
Now I need to head to bed and try to rest before surgery in the morning. Oh, one more thing...
Don't feel like you need to say the right thing now, we really are okay. Rough patch, but this experience has been empowering for our family and really brought Kevin and I closer than ever. I'm grateful for the priesthood, an amazing husband and a Creator who knows my needs, my mind, my family and even my body. No need to get too personal here, just wanted you all to know we are alive and this is why I haven't been returning phone calls :o) Chaos will be under control soon... maybe :o)
Thanks for enduring the length of this post. That just saved me a lot of time explaining it to everyone individually on the phone!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Wonderful Day!!!
Paige was released from the hospital this afternoon and we couldn't be happier!
To celebrate our sweet pumpkin coming home we had a pumpkin pie party.
There is more to say, but not tonight. Thank you for all who have been praying for our family! We have needed it and we have seen those prayers answered. We love you!
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