I'm alive!

Hello! This will have to be short, but wanted to say thank you to everyone for thoughts, prayers, calls, and food! I am doing better than I thought I would be. Thanks to my aamazing parents. Glad my sis in law is coming too. Not ready to be on my own yet. Start therapy in the a.m. Still in sling. Less meds=better sleep soon, I hope. Will test out driving soon! YAY! Thanks again to all! More when I am not so disabled!

I'm going under!

I'm going under, the knife that is! Yep, it's true. I am finally getting my right shoulder fixed on Friday. A torn rotator cuff and some tendonitis. Possibility (very, acutely small) that there is damage to the labrum too. Apparently they'll check it all out. Just an outpatient arthoscopic little procedure. Should be home by dinner time.

I must admit that I had my first HUGE panic attack today. I had to have a little physical which involved me getting up early, getting a babysitter, getting kids all ready, Jake onto the bus, and out the door by 9 while Bart was working early this morning. Then I drove the 25 min in traffic to the office. Then came the physical....me meeting a guy 1/2 my age that will be helping to cut into my arm...and all that he did was ask me 3 pages of questions that I could have answered over the phone. At least I refused to pay the $40 co-pay as I was just there yesterday. Thank goodness they complied. Then I got home and had to "pre-register" with the hospital and guess what they asked? The SAME 3 pages of questions. Most excellent. And I am quite certain I'll get to answer them again tomorrow. And yes, I really am that healthy since I don't smoke, drink, use recreational drugs or have other diseases that we know of!

But, I digress. Back to the panic attack. I asked this guy a bunch of questions and I should have stopped myself. I found out the way that they do the nerve block is to sedate me, but keep me awake. Then they give you the nerve block shot in your neck/collar bone region so that my arm will be numb. All I can think of is that it sounds an awful lot like an epidural in my neck. Interesting. Let's all hope that the sedation really works so I can be in my happy place when the needle approaches my neck.

I guess what this really means to all of you that are on pins and needles waiting for my posts each week that I'll likely be out of it for a while. I believe I am in a sling for the next 6 weeks. I won't know for sure until they go in and see how bad the damage is. Lovely for me. I think I get to drive after 2 weeks.

And lastly before I sign off:

Thank you to my amazing husband for supporting me. Bart even carried the armchair upstairs so I'll be able to sleep upright in my most comfy chair.

Thank you to my amazing parents who are flying in to take care of me and my kids. My Dad is coming for the weekend so he can be there to give me a blessing (thank you for the priesthood) and to go to the hospital with Bart. My Dad will also be the resident cook. Thank you to my Mom who is staying until the following Saturday to make sure we can survive the 1st week and manage to get Jacob's homework done. And thank you for helping us to get my sister-in-law, Sarah, out here to take care of me for week # 2.

Thank you to Sarah for being brave enough to come play nurse and Mom to 3 kids while taking care of her own little one.

Thank you to all my friends who are checking in on us. My Mom will be in charge of the phone, so call her if you have any questions!

I'll sign back on when I can. Don't worry, I'll likely still be stalking all of you, just not able to type for a bit.

Happy Valentine's Day!

What more could a Mom want or need than these three faces. Oh how I love them. We were laughing our heads off as we tried to take these pictures. What a great moment. Hope you all enjoy time with your loves too.
Get this blasted thing off of my head!
What cheese!One of my favorites of him.

Rachel did NOT want to sit there and was squirming all over the place. She had the rest of us laughing our heads off. I love their laughs and their faces.

11 Months and the Crazy Cake

The Crazy Cake

If you know me very well, you know that once a year I try to be a good wife and mother. Just once. For some reason I decided that I should make birthday cakes for my family. I don't know why. Bart absolutely loves a good white sheet cake with white frosting from the store, so I have been known to let him have his cake and eat it too. But, when it comes to the kids, I LOVE to make their cakes. I hate how long it takes to make, I hate that I have made a rotten cake (true story), I hate that sometimes it takes me 3 cakes to get it out of the mold (rookie mistakes), and I hate how much my back hurts by the end. All of that is completely forgotten though when I can finish the cake. I love the end result. I love watching the faces of my kids when they see their cakes. I really should dig out some pictures here, but I am too tired. I will list the few I have done though: Football, Baseball, Elmo, Thomas the Train, SpiderMan, Lightning McQueen, a Butterfly, and a Lady Bug. Last year we were living with the in-laws and everything was packed away, so I didn't get to fulfill this weird desire of mine. So this was my year to get back to it...until I hurt my shoulder. Which really stinks. And somehow, February snuck up on me way too fast. I guess all that sunshine in January made the month go by more quickly. So, without further ramblings, I ended up really scrambling to get Bart's cake done this year. I did have my sweet 3 yr old daughter who loves to be in the kitchen, (even if she is just doing dishes which she does very well) as my helper. She got some new sprinkles at the store when Grandma was here and so we just HAD to use them as soon as the opportunity presented itself. The frosting HAD to be blue because Jacob wanted it that way for his Dad who is a boy. Noted. So, this is what we ended up with. So sorry honey. It didn't look super great, but man was it tasty! A true labor of love.

The man of the hour with his 3 sweet kids. Wow, they look alike here.

11 Months

How did this happen so fast? Rachel is so great. Really, one of the best babies ever. She loves to eat and is enjoying green pancakes here. Oh I love her. We'll save stats and all that for next month.




My mushy "I am happy and I love you" face

Is this a kiss or shoving the food all the way in?

I'll take a kiss.

For my sweet love!

My sweet, sweet Bart,

Oh how you stole my heart!

I love you more than I can say,

I love you more each day.

I love the way you make me smile,

The way you tease me once in awhile!

I love the way you play with each child,

Even if you all end up so wild.

I love the way you work so hard

So I can have a brand new yard (coming soon)

I love the way you are so fun

I promise I am almost done.

Most of all I love who you are

You are my favorite, by far.

We've shared so much and are still in love

Thank goodness you were sent from above.

Happy Happy Birthday to the love of my life

I am so thankful to be your wife.

And now my rhyming will come to an end

Sorry this is a few days late, my friend.

Hope you had a great birthday, we love you so much!

(Pictures of the world's funniest looking cake to come -it's what happens when a special 3 yr old helps out)

Rachel's gone mobile

I'm quite certain it won't be too long before I am using that phrase in reference to some sort of electronic device, but for now, it just means that Rachel has decided to crawl. I actually am welcoming the phase. It definitely changes everything and means more supervision and vacuuming, but it also means that I don't have to carry her as much. Don't get me wrong, I love to snuggle a cute baby, but it is nice when they can move on their own too, especially with a recent shoulder injury, this should make my life easier. I did forget, however, that it makes it harder at church and leads to much more squirminess in the arms. So, I have a couple of videos for your enjoyment. We were home on Saturday night, just me and Bart with Rachel. The other kiddos were in bed, so it was fun to get to watch this milestone together and enjoy it with this sweet baby girl. The first video or two shows her original attempts and by the last video, you can see she has mastered the art of movement. Welcome to the big girl world, my baby girl!