I'm Still Alive!

Well, by now most of you probably know that I survived my very grueling surgery. Some of it was so much harder than I imagined it could be, and some of it has been easier than I ever dreamed. Things have been so crazy for our family this summer! We were able to get moved into our new home the week before my surgery. I drove by our new house on the day we had signed all the closing papers. The seller was outside so I stopped and as soon as I got out of the car he said, "I know why you're here." I was surprised and said, "Really?" And he said, "Sure, come inside and I'll give you the keys." So that easily we got the keys and I went home to call the carpet cleaners. They said that they had an appointment cancel that morning and they had one spot. So I snatched it up and we started moving in.

We got everything in by Saturday afternoon and that same afternoon we finished at our old house. We were all soooo tired, but our house was a mess and I knew that I couldn't go into surgery knowing how much needed to be done so we got to work. We got most everything out in it's place by Saturday night. We still had to put our bedroom together so we did work on that a little Sunday morning. By the time Sunday evening came most everything was in it's place with a few things put on the walls. I knew then that I could go in for surgery and not worry about my house. It turns out that it was such a huge blessing that we got our keys early because the house didn't fund until this last Thursday. More than a week after we thought it would. We are so grateful that we were able to get the keys and be moved in!!!!

Monday morning came bright and early. I was a little nervous, but not too much. Pretty soon everything was ready and the next thing I knew I was waking up from my surgery. I was a wreck!!!! I was so anxious and yelling at everyone that they were too loud and that my head was going to explode. They went and got my surgeon and brought him in to calm me down. He ordered some drugs and I was off again into lala land. Monday night and Tuesday all day they kept me super sedated. I really thought I was going to die and never feel normal again. It was super scary! The dr said that Tuesday would be my hardest day. Well, it may have been my easiest because I was so drugged. Each day I showed huge signs of improvement so Friday morning when the dr came to see me he said he wanted me to head home. So I waited for my mom to come and take me home to be with my kids. I did really well on Friday evening. I still am not sleeping much at night so that's hard, but when I got up Saturday morning I started throwing up. I threw up all day late into the evening. I couldn't keep any food or pills down. I am doing much better this morning and haven't thrown up so we'll keep our fingers crossed. All the throwing up and the fact that I haven't had any pills for pain since yesterday morning have made my tummy pretty sore. I should back up a little and say that since I'd had Sam by c-section my tummy wasn't optimum for taking the tissue so Dr Oliva (my plastic surgeon) had to take a lot more tissue than he had thought so I'm tucked SUPER tightly!! Standing up is out of the question. Scott says I look like a hobbit when I walk anywhere. He took about an 8" piece out of my belly! When I get all healed up I'm sure I'll be glad, but for right now I will NEVER recommend a tummy tuck by choice to anyone!!!!

On Tuesday Victoria got her wisdom teeth out. She did soooo well! She followed all the rules and has healed very quickly. Friday night she was looking a little swollen, but by this morning she's pretty much back to normal. I feel like this was a tender mercy for our family this week!

So I guess that's it...we just keep plugging away. Thanks for all the prayers, emails, help with the move, etc. I know they have helped!!

Quick Update

Just to give everyone an update...We bought a house!!! AND we move in 3 days before my surgery. If you don't know about this I'll expand:

When we moved back to Spokane we hadn't sold our house in Meridian so we found a house to rent until we'd sold our house. We had no idea how long it would be and didn't want to be paying for two houses. Well, little did we know that it would only take us a couple of weeks to sell our house. We didn't find exactly what we were looking for so we waited. When I was sick last fall I didn't feel up to moving so we waited some more. A few weeks ago I told Scott that we just needed to pick from what's out there. We weren't happy with anything that would keep us in the same area, but as we know where there's a will, there's a way! We definitely had the will so we found a way. We saw this house on Zillow that had a make me move price, and that we did! We called them, went and looked at it and made them an offer. After dickering back and forth for about a week we settled on a price and time frame. So we move in and then I have surgery.

If you don't know what the surgery is I'll explain. Sorry for any of you who get embarrassed at girl talk--you probably don't want to read the next little bit. I'm having a second mastectomy and a double reconstruction. I am having a TRAM. Can't tell you what it stands for, but it means that they are taking my belly that I've been gaining since last fall and cutting it out to reconstruct what I've had taken off. It's a very extensive surgery. It will last 10 hours!! I will be curled up in the fetal position for 2 weeks. I'll spend 1 week in the hospital and then be home and bedridden for a few weeks. It will probably be pretty hard on me to not be able to "go" for so long! I'm not good at holding still, but the last year has been good training for me. I'm so grateful that my wonderful mom is coming for 2 months!!! I don't know how else we'd manage. We will have lots of unpacking to do still and she will be great at helping kids and doing things that bother me! :)

The dates for everything is: closing on the house on August 10th. Hopefully we'll be able to get our keys on the 11th so we can get the carpets cleaned and then start moving in on the 12th. We'll finish the moving out and cleaning of the old house on Saturday the 13th. I will rest on Sunday and then Monday morning I'll go in for my surgery.

I'm working feverishly to get everything ready! I also started working at an orthodontist's office a little over a month ago so on my days off and evenings I pack. I'll rest AFTER my surgery. :) I don't know how long until I can update my blog. I won't have use of my arms for a while and won't be able to sit up so it may be a while. I may want visitors to keep me from going crazy. Call and see if I'm up to it and come over to see me if Mom says it's a go! You can also visit my wonderful mom. After school starts I'm sure she'd love the company. By then I'll be up to visitors for sure!

My kids are so amazing!!!! They have worked and worked and I know they will continue to do so. They have been so good about not having any vacations due to mom working, moving and surgery. It's been such a boring summer for them. They are so understanding when we talk about the amount of money this surgery and all the treatments have cost us. We're a little behind to say the least, but as my sweet husband reminds constantly we wouldn't put a price tag on our mom. (So hard for me to hear!! I'd rather stay home and not have to work AND I can't help of dreaming about the fabulous vacation we could have gone on instead of paying doctors so much money!!!!!) Hopefully after this surgery I won't be so darn expensive! Hopefully this is the end of big bills for me--not that I want to pay them for anyone else either. :) We are trying to save up for a vacation during Christmas break. We hope to have all the bills paid by then...if not we may have to postpone our trip once again...such is life!

We hope everyone enjoys their summer. We'll enjoy ours once it's all over...Happy Summer!!!

Jed's 14th Birthday

I know I'm a little late, but on June 18th Jed turned 14. I can't believe that my tiny little red head boy is 14. He's not very tiny anymore! He's almost 6' tall. He was so excited to be done with school. The kids finished school on the 17th, Father's Day was the 19th so we squeezed a little celebration in on the 18th. Then early the 20th Scott, Victoria, Jed and I left for trek. It was quite an adventure! Here are the pictures from Jed's big day.

Emilee and Jed

Julia and Sam with Jed

Victoria and Jed

Silly boy!!

Here's the Father's Day/Birthday pie celebration the next day.

It was a fun day! Jed went to his first stake dance the next week. Victoria said he asked lots of girls to dance. He loved going on trek and was a super hard worker. His family was happy to have him. On Father's Day he was ordained a Teacher. It was a big week! We are so proud of Jed and the great young man that he is. We love you and are so glad to have you part of our family!!!

Happy Birthday Emilee!!

It hardly seems possible that it's been 9 years since that day that we waited so long for...the day when you FINALLY decided you would come and join our family. You were two weeks late and we were very surprised when you were soooo big. You've been a character since that day. You've brought a sparkle to our lives that we never dreamed possible. We're so thankful to have you in our family. We love you Emilee!!!!







We have a fun tradition for the girls' ninth Birthdays. Emilee was thinking that maybe she'd been passed over for this tradition. Here's when she found out that she wasn't forgotten.


Opening it up...


Finally an American Girl doll of her own!


Here's her cake. We had chocolate ice cream to go with the chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. She's a smart girl!


Victoria decorated her cake exactly how Emilee ordered.


Happy Birthday Emilee! We love you so much and are so grateful that Heavenly Father sent you to us. Just think...we REALLY wanted a boy so we could be done. Good thing we didn't get what we wanted--we got just what we needed, and we've never been sorry! Just don't grow up any more. We love you just the way you are!!!

Happy Birthday Dear Julia!

Julia's Birthday is March 9th. Scott has been in Boise this week so we celebrated on Sunday before he left. It turns out that was good in more ways than we thought! Here's our sweet 11 year old.


The pile of presents.


Sam and Julia

Emilee and Julia

Jed and Julia

Victoria and Julia

Julia loves to pick out what she wants for her cake. I just didn't have the patience for it this year so Julia was very lucky to have her dad willing to help. I'm sure it turned out better than if I had done it!!

For Julia's Birthday she took giant chocolate chip cookies to share with her class. She wore a new shirt one of her best friends had given her. She has another one of her best friends who's Birthday is the day before Julia's. Julia's friend had given them both shirts and the friend got one too so they all three wore matching shirts to school. Julia was so excited! Well, the day didn't turn out to be quite as good as she or I wanted...

I got a call from Victoria about 12:30 that she had just thrown up at school. She said that she felt fine so she wanted to go to seminary, but would I please pick her up right after that so she didn't have to ride the bus. I went to get her and she said she'd been throwing up during seminary as well. I got her home and settled. Then the phone rang and it was Julia calling and saying that she was sick so she wanted to come home. When I got to the school there was only about 20 minutes left of school so I got Emilee and Sam too. Julia hadn't been throwing up so I took her home and tucked her into bed. My kids' piano teacher was coming to teach Emilee and Victoria piano lessons. When she came I had her teach Emilee. Just at the end of Emilee's lesson Jed called from basketball practice and said that he'd been throwing up so could I come and get him.
I felt terrible that I had Diane in our house teaching a lesson. I should have sent her away when she came!

I decided that I probably shouldn't be going to mutual so I called one of my counselors and told her I was needed at home...remember that Scott is in Boise. We stayed home with Victoria and Jed throwing up all evening. I was really nervous to go to bed! I made everyone sleep with bath towels on their pillows so that if they threw up hopefully it would be less for me to clean up. I had visions of being up all night doing laundry and cleaning carpets and mattresses. I sent everyone to bed early and I went to bed with them. I was thinking that if I really slept until my alarm went off I'd get 9 hours of sleep. I was so happy to wake up at 5:30!! No one had gotten me up! I'd slept all night! I went around and checked and sure enough...all kids sleeping and no one had thrown up.

Victoria was up getting herself ready for the day. She and Jed both headed off to school after eating some toast. They wanted to go. I wanted to keep them both home. I'm not sure who they belong to because any time I was given the option of staying home I did! They must be their father's children. :) The man who got perfect attendance for all 4 years of high school. What a nerd!! It's amazing to me that they care that much about their schooling. Somehow I'm raising responsible children! Julia, Emilee, and Sam are home today. Emilee is complaining of a sick tummy and Sam who couldn't be out done is sure his tummy is sick too. Sam ate breakfast and is mad that he didn't get to pick what they were watching...I think he's feeling fine. Let's just hope it stays that way. Victoria, Jed, and Emilee have a piano adjudication today. I hope they're all feeling well enough to play!

This brings up memories of me throwing up at school in the middle of art on my 11th Birthday. I may have jinxed Julia! Julia was opening her Birthday present from Grandma Jensen and I wanted to take some pictures. She said, "Please not pictures when I'm feeling this terrible!" So I don't have pictures of her opening her beautiful aquamarine necklace. I'll take pictures when she's feeling better. Let's just hope today is less eventful than yesterday!

A busy life!

OK. I'm a terrible blogger! I said a month ago that I would post the "finish" pictures from Victoria's race and I'm just now doing it. This is why I never had a blog until I was stuck sitting on the couch recovering. Now, life is just as busy as normal! We keep plugging away, and I try to keep up with everything. I'm feeling pretty well for the most part. I just get frustrated because I can't run a hundred miles an hour like I want to.

Here are the pictures I promised:

Here's Victoria coming in to the finish.


Here she is with Auntie Berta after finishing.

She's saying, "It was so easy! I'm not even sweating!!"

All I can say is how impressed I am! Victoria trained so hard and did so well. For some reason she doesn't have an official time. All I know is that it was under an hour! She did an amazing job! Next year she wants to train for the half marathon. A special thank you to Aunt Karson who was Victoria's mentor and biggest encouragement. Karson has a wonderful gift of being able to motivate people. Next year I hope to see Victoria running with her Aunt!!

Our Trip to Arizona

I know that I'm late in getting these up, but at least I'm doing it! Victoria has been training for 6 months to run in a cancer benefit run that her Aunt Karson inspired her to do. She has trained hard! I've gotten many comments from our neighbors that have seen her out running our hills. I went down to Arizona on the Tuesday before the race to soak up some sun. Victoria didn't come until very late Friday night and then Saturday we were up well before the sun to get out to the race. The first pictures show how very early it was!

My cousin Luke and his wife, Jen came from New Mexico so that Jenny could run the race. She injured her knee just a few days before, but she still ran the half marathon! In this picture is Jen, Spencer, Karson, Me, Victoria, McKay, and Abby

The kids getting excited for the fun run to start. McKay, Caleb, Carter and Riley (McKay's friends) Emma, Emily (Carter's and Riley's mom) and Abby.

Here's the whole team!

Spencer, Berta, and Victoria waiting until starting time

Since I'm not so great at doing this I will do it in two posts. So here's the "before" of the race. Can't you just feel the excitement!?!

Stay tuned for the finish....