Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Surgery and Singing

Pre-Op smiles...we got up super early and headed downtown to the surgical center.  Mac is all smiles, now...I hate to think that she will be down and out for some time, though.


The surgery went well, and without any complications.  The nurses said she did better in the recovery room waking up from the anesthesia than other kids do, and many adults, for that matter.  

This picture breaks my heart.  She was SO out of it coming off the anesthesia...and for that matter, let's back up and talk about going under.  They let me be in the room while they put her under, and the put the gas mask on her face, and the anesthesiologist asked her a couple questions, and before she could even answer the second or third one, she drifted off.  The vulnerability was very sobering to see.  That there's something that can just knock you out like that.  Really it was bizarre, and a very uncomfortable feeling, to watch her fade literally before my very eyes, even though everything was fine.  Waking up is just as vulnerable, but in different ways.  She looks like she has HAD IT in this picture.  She did have the presence of mind to say yes to a wheelchair to the car as opposed to me carrying her.  I looked at her, and almost didn't want to take a picture of her, but wanted to be reminded of how well she did.

We went home, and she was so tired, which they said was normal.  She fell asleep in the car on the way home, and then literally slept for much of the rest of the day.  She didn't balk at heading into her room and sleeping in her bed at all.  She perked up a tiny bit towards the end of the day, but it was definitely a down day.  We are keeping Tylenol and Ibuprofen in her religiously.  They prescribed a narcotic, but hopefully she won't need it.  We shall see.


Bless Grandmere's heart, she stayed with the other two while I took Mac in this morning, and then she stayed with all of them for a few minutes while I ran to fill prescriptions and then to the post office, to send off Derek's package!  The rest of the afternoon was spent quietly at home, and getting ready for Mimi's Spring Sing at preschool!  It's that time of year, again!  The lilacs are blooming, and the kids are getting ready to SING!   Mimi got all dressed up, and matched with the lilacs quite nicely.  What a sweetheart.


Leiden and Bapa came to see little Meems, while Grandmere very graciously agreed to stay with sweet Mac at home, who was obviously not up to the trip.


Mimi is a cutie, and towers over her classmates.  I wonder when she'll slow down...At this point, I'm expecting some real height!


She was funny with the little girl sitting next to her.  The other little girl kept doing everything with her eyes closed.


That height discrepancy is about standard.  There are a couple taller, but Mimi has the next tallest by three inches at least.  She did a sweet job, singing the songs, and doing the actions.  She has come a long way from the first program in the fall!  I can't believe a whole year of preschool has already gone by!  My littlest is not so little anymore.  :)


After the program, we headed out to get some ice cream.  We got ENORMOUS shakes from Iceberg.


Mimi and I posed for the camera.  I have no idea what's on my eye.  It is only showing up on Blogger...fortunately I did not have a giant black mark on my eyelid all day.  But it wouldn't surprise me if I had.


Long, big day!  We came home to little Mac wanting Mommy, and me hoping and praying the night went well.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Pre-Op

Whew!  We headed to the store, today, to ready Mac for her surgery tomorrow!  I am not looking forward to what might come, but we're hoping for the best.


Pretty exciting that I'm getting ready to send off my first care package to Derek, today!  That means my first customs form...eek!


I decided it's worth my time to go all out for the packages...at least my planned ones.  It keeps me busy, gives me a creative outlet, and it's fun!  With the added bonus of Derek having to open them up in front of his roommates!  ;)



I thought the welcome sign was particularly appropriate, as it is a knock off of the Las Vegas welcome sign.


Fun stuff.  I hope to get it in the mail tomorrow, but we'll see how Mac is doing.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Shots Fired

Tonight Derek left from Qatar to Afghanistan...so what did I do to prepare for the changes?  Chuckle...I headed to the range and put some lead out.  I am improving, even though I don't go nearly enough...this first target sheet was at 15 yards, 40 mm bullets.


This one was another box of 40 mm, shot at 20 yards...the grouping spreads out, but I'm still getting better, and given enough bullets, I'm deadly.  ;) 


It was good stress relief to make things loud, and rip paper apart with high speed projectiles...I am feeling it, though.  I took this picture afterwards, and when Derek saw it, he told me it was an excellent 'Go to he*!' face.  That made me laugh.  Because that's pretty much what I was thinking when I took it.  The man knows me well. 

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Steak!

Walking out from church, Mimi found some dandelions for me.  It's really cute how they think they are these beautiful flowers, when the rest of the world thinks they are pesky weeds.  There's a lesson in there, somewhere.  They teach me every day.


Broke out the new grill today!  It has been sitting on the back porch for far too long unused!  We were going to have family over, but then sickness came upon our house.  That postponed things.  ;)


We had fabulous steaks!


And then this.  Hmm.  It was supposed to be done closer to Easter, as it is a Cadbury Creme Egg cake...tasty, but serious frosting fail!  The filling in between the layers was a fondant similar to the fondant inside creme eggs.  Next time, I would double up on the fondant so it is more easily tasted.  But in all, an interesting idea for Easter.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Today was a Saturday sans girls, so I headed out with my parents to see a movie and get some dinner.  I have read these books, they were really good, and the movie was a pretty good adaptation of the book.   Win win all around.  I really do like young adult fiction and the movies that result from those books.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Sunflowers

THIS is crazy!  It's a sunflower seedling.  These things, understandably, grow incredibly fast.  Like noticeable growth from one day to the next.  Considering how large they get by the end of summer, they HAVE to grow that fast, but wow!  The rest of the seedlings are doing well.  Hopefully I will be able to get a raised bed garden in this summer.  I need to get a sketch together to present to the landlord and get crackin!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

I am a soccer mom.  It's kind of just occurred to me.  I cart my kids and my stuff to sit on grassy fields and watch kids run around after a ball.  I hope they like it.


While I was contemplating this fact of soccer mom-hood, I looked over at Leiden, and noticed these crazy freckles!  She has them dusting her face all across from cheekbone to cheekbone.  SO cute.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Proofreading

So, this is what I was up to today.  I am now currently enrolled in an online proofreading course, that will supposedly teach me how to be a proofreader.  We shall see.  The first assignments were pretty ridiculously easy, and had nothing to do with proofreading, so hopefully I have not been led on a merry chase.  :)  It feels good to be working on something that could come to benefit me later.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Tonsils!

Mac.  Poor, sweet, little Mac.  She has been complaining of a sore throat daily for a good long while, now.  We had been to the pediatrician multiple times for strep cultures, and kept getting negative results.  Finally, he referred us to an ENT, whom we visited today.  He checked out her throat, and said he couldn't see much wrong with it, but that that didn't mean anything.  He said in most cases like this, he goes by history.  Dry cough.  Complaining of sore throat.  Waking in the night with sore throat.  Check, check, check.  So, easy as that, he recommended a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy.  She has been snoring, too, off and on, and not just when she has a cold, which I understand is not normal for young children.  They should be pretty much quiet while they sleep.  Well.  I guess we exchange bunches of little sore throats for one giant, weeks long one, and then hopefully we're done.  I feel good about it.  I'm not looking forward to the recovery, which I understand can be rough, but we can do this.  I just pray that it helps the problems she has had.  They say to expect a 5-10 pound weight loss(!!!), and all sorts of other things...her voice to change temporarily, potential bleeding, very potential dehydration.  Lots of just great stuff.  Well, they will call us in a day or two to schedule the surgical center, and we'll be off.  She will miss 2 full weeks of school and soccer, and will have to watch her activity carefully until she is given the clear to be active again.  Here we go!

Monday, April 21, 2014

And So It Begins

Okay, seriously.  The lawn is needing to be mowed, already, and I was dreading it, becuase I had so many problems with getting the mower started last summer.  I really thought there was something so wrong with the mower.  I could not get the silly thing to start, it was driving me crazy.  I even called WalMart to ask about getting it looked at, as I had purchased the protection plan.  They told me I would have to take it directly to a repairman suggested by the lawnmower company...I was discouraged.  Sometimes I could get it running late last summer if I primed it really good, then left it for 20-30 minutes and came back and tried again.  Even that wasn't working.  Sheesh.  Then my neighbor, who was also out mowing his lawn took pity on my struggles and came to see what was going on.  Well, he fired that sucker right up.  And then it dawned on me...it's not the lawnmower, it's ME!  I'm not pulling it right for someone with less strength.  I was using too much of my strength before the cord caught the motor, wasting what I had, leaving not enough to work with once caught.  I've finally figured it out!  I am so excited.  And I can't help but think it's ridiculous to be this excited about a lawn mower.  :)

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  The girls woke to this surprise on the kitchen table.


It would appear the Easter Bunny came in the night!


He left us a letter, explaining the morning, including breakfast, and a hunt in the backyard!


He even gave us a starting line!


I made cute little bunny pancakes for the girls' breakfast.


Then the hunt was on!  Each girl had a number on her basket, which corresponded to numbers on all the things hidden outside.  I'm sure this was an attempt on the Easter Bunny's part to keep things fair.


It was a beautiful morning, as the girls wandered around the back yard, finding treasures and treats.


Things hidden in the grass, in the trees, on ledges...everywhere they could be!


The Easter Bunny's number system worked out exceptionally well.  There was no arguing, and everyone got all the things they were supposed to.


The girls after the haul!


Leiden had the talk today in Primary, so it was a double duty kind of special day.


Grandmere and Bapa came to hear Leiden give her talk...and they were kind enough to take a picture of us after church before they left for home.  We had all sat on the grass, but my dad couldn't find the on/off button on the camera.  So I got up to help him, and when I turned around, Mac was crying and holding her hand.  Apparently I had raked the pointy heel of my shoe over the top of her hand as I stood up and stepped through.  Poor girl!  Of course, her hand was fine, just a little scrape, but this meant no smiles for pictures.  Mom of the year award, here!


After church the girls utilized their new watering cans to help out the plants in the front.  They can use all the water we can get on them.


Dinner tonight was at Pete and Susan's, where they had gotten the girls some cute little presents to keep them occupied.  My sweet little bunnies!


It was a very nice day, full of fun and the true meaning of Easter.  I am so glad that we have been given the gift of our Savior, that we are blessed to have the opportunity to live again.  Happy Easter!

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Saturday

Busy is the order of the day, at this point...and the front flower bed needed flowers, again.  I got full sun flowers, this time, and hopefully I can keep them alive.  It looks very spring-y and colorful!


Tonight after the girls went to bed, I was sitting in the living room, and there was this strange whoosh...it sounded like an incredibly strong gust of wind hit the house.  I didn't think much of it, except to wonder at its strength.  A few minutes later Madison was on Facebook talking about the earthquake!  I was totally surprised.  It didn't feel at all like I had expected an earthquake to feel, but when I went online to verify and get more info, there it was!  As far as I'm concerned, it was pretty awesome.  It's the first earthquake I've ever felt, despite having lived in Utah the vast majority of my life!