Lilly & Bryce's First Christmas!

"Wow look at all those presents, can we say spoiled"

OK So I went a Little, I mean BIG time overboard this year.

But its their 1st Christmas and I wanted it to be BIG!

First Trip to See Santa! No Tears!

Helping Aunt Susie Wrap Presents.
Well let me rephrase that Sue was wrapping and Bryce was unwrapping (riping) 

They Love their new Wagon grandma and grandpa bought them.

The Final Product after all the presents were opened.

Gallbladder Surgery

So for about 4 years now I have been having problems with my gallbladder.

Before I got pregnant I went to the doctor about it and nothing was ever done.

Then I got pregnant and while pregnant Lilly always laid and sat on my gallbladder, so guess what it caused me more problems.

After the kids were born my issues went away, until about early November when I started having pressure and pain problems again. So off to the doctor I go again.

I explain my problems and says I still think its your gallbladder, so lets order blood work and a ultrasound and go from there.

The blood work comes back perfectly fine, but guess what the u/s shows? Inflamed gallbladder with tons of gallstones. Now I am being referred to the surgeon.

So now its early December and the receptionist at my doctors office is calling me to tell me she set me up at appointment for surgery to remove the gallbladder on Dec 15th. Do what I don't want to do this right before Christmas and then be laid up and miss my kids 1st Christmas I will call them and reschedule but thank you.

I call the surgeons office and explain to her that I would like to reschedule my surgery for after Christmas so I don't miss my kids 1st Christmas and she understands completely and changes it to Dec 27th. Sounds great to me, plus this helps me so I don't miss as much work with the vacations holiday days off.

Dec 26th rolls around and I was waiting for the surgeons office to call to remind me not to eat after midnight etc etc. And no call so I decide to call them, mainly just so I knew what time they wanted me there. This is where I get frustrated!

When I call the receptionist is like surgery? Yeah and I explained her the situation and and she says whats your name let me look toy up. Here you are, you are not scheduled for surgery, this is for a consultation, you are not a established patient yet so we need to see you first. Say what I was told this is for surgery and repeat to here then why did my doctors office tell me it was for surgery on the 15th and I dint like that day so I called you guys back to reschedule and your receptionist so OK we will move the surgery to the 27th. I wanted to get it done before the new year so I don't pay a deductible etc. She apologizes and says see you tomorrow.

Dec 27th and I show for my appointment (Still frustrated) and was looked over told what was going to happen with the surgery and then the doctors says I would like to get this done right away before this gets worse can we do this Dec 31st? I am like what really? Heck yeah sounds great I wanted to get it done before the new year. I know what you are all thinking really you did this on New Years Eve? This is a party night! I really did care as we didn't have nothing planned this year anyway!

Dec 31st rolls around and we head to the hospital at 6 am, check in and was taken back to post surgery room to insert IV etc. I am like lets go, lets get this over with. We get to the room and the nurse inserts the IV and bam does that shit hurt, and normally never bothers me. In the meantime of it hurting she is taking blood from the IV so the IV needle is moving around and hurting me more. Then something happen, not sure what she did wrong and blood goes all her the floor, running down my fingers. Really lady!

Finally she is done and now she starting fidgeting around trying to find tape to finally tape the needle in my hand down and I am like please so it will stop moving and hurting. And the whole time I am like this hurts with you moving it so much, can you pleas hurry and stop moving it. At one point I did say I have never had one hurt, let alone had one movie it around so much like you have and she looks at me and says it hurts, really? And I was like yeah alot.

After she was complete they sent Doug in to sit with me till I was ready to go. He was there 10 minutes and I was like this IV really hurts bad and explain to him what happen. He told me to hit the nurse cal button and tell her that you want it replaced somewhere else that it hurts. I wait since it was only 10 minutes hoping maybe the pain would go away but nope 10 more Min's later and the pain is getting worse so I cant take anymore and hit the cal button. The first nurse that took me to my room said OK lets see whats going on.

First she pulls it out a little, I let out a moan yep no still hurts, OK lets push it in farther. Nope hurts even more. Shes like OK if you don't mind being stuck then I will move it. I was like lady this IV hurts and nope being stuck doesn't bother me at all, shit I was stuck over 100 times to conceive my twins this is a breeze, plus needles don't hurt or bother me so lets get this sucker moved.

She moves the IV from my hand to my underarm at elbow level. Good to go and no pain!

About 10 Min's later I am sent to the surgery and Doug to the waiting room. We got to the room and I know it wasn't 2 Min's and I was out cold. They don't play games there.

From what I was told everything went great except the anesthesiology made me sick and nauseated so they had to put a Dramamine patch behind my ear.

Off to home we go, yep don't remember this either and I don't remember the night or ringing in the new year.

The next thing I do remember is waking the next day and heading back to Doug's parents for a New Years Crab Leg Lunch! I was drugged and groggy but in no pain, but I was having one problem and that was seeing things. I never said anything to Doug, until the point I couldn't take anymore.

He started laughing and was like OOPS!

Whats so funny and what do you mean OOPS?

He proceeds to tell me that after my surgery I was sick so they put a patch on behind my ear to make me feel better and that he was to take it off when we got home and me settled. And they told him that if he forgot, that I would remind him when I woke up because I would see blurry. Guess what, they were right. My darling husband forgot and I couldn't see shit. I was freaking out, now they took my sight. Thanks Hunny!

Days go by and mainly all I did was sleep, thank you to my MIL for keeping the kids so I could sleep this surgery off, not that I could take care of them anyway since I couldn't live Bryce caused he is so big.

After around 5 days I was feeling better but still had another week and half off till I saw the doctor again. So I did alot of relaxing and a little shopping.

Jan 14th and its post surgery check up and everything check out good and I am released back to full duty and I can now hold my kids again! Thank you! I missed holding my babies!

I did go back to my primary doctor on the 15th though as I am still having problems and a few more x rays and tests ordered but cant seem to find the problem so they thing its just my bowels trying to restart and catch back up. We will see how it goes.

This is the bruise from where the first nurse insert the IV that hurt so bad.



Here is my 4 battle wounds from my surgery. Small and not painful at all.

And my stomach is still swollen from the gas the inserted.



My Gift

My Gift

I received you as parents on the day I wed your son.

So I just want to thank you for all that you have done.

You gave to me a special man with whom I share my life.

You're his loving parents and I'm his lucky wife.

Your faith, hope and kindness are qualities that we treasure.

But most of all we appreciate the love you give without measure.

As grandparents you both have that very special touch.

That's why they love you both so very very much.

You make them laugh, you make them giggle.

You make them dance, and sing, and wriggle!

They have so much fun and shout out loud.

That you belong to them and they are very proud!

So we celebrate you both on your 48th anniversary day.

And we all love you more than words can say.....

The Newest Memeber to Join The Family

Please Welcome my new cousin born to the parents of Kristi and Jarred Doolittle

Lucas Edward Doolittle

8lbs 12oz 21in

Born at 5:30 am on Dec 18, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

My Heart Aches For These Families!

On Tuesday, December 18th, there will be a blogger day of silence. 

I also saw this poem on another Blog I follow and thought it was beautiful so I had to share it.

Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38

when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.

their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.

they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.

they were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.

they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that ...day.

"where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.

"this is heaven." declared a small boy. "we're spending Christmas at God's house."

when what to their wondering eyes did appear,

but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.

He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.

then He opened His arms and He called them by name.

and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring

those children all flew into the arms of their King

and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,

one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.

and as if He could read all the questions she had

He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."

then He looked down on earth, the world far below

He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe

then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,

"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"

"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"

"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"

then He and the children stood up without a sound.

"come now my children, let me show you around."

excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.

all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.

and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,

"in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT.

My Aunt Nancy - Please Pray!

I wanted to write a blog post about someone that is important to me. That person happens to be my mom's older sister Nancy. My Aunt is a strong brave lady and that has gone through a lot these past 10 years or so. So I want to highlight her today and tell you about this special lady in my life.

Not sure if everyone knows, but cancer runs very heavy in my family. My grandma is like 1 of many not sure the exact number, I want to say 12 but out of all of her brothers and sisters there is only 1 left. Every single one of my aunts and uncles, including my grandmother all passed away from cancer. And I have had several other family members (cousins) with types of cancer.

Not sure why or how this happen to my Aunt but around 10 years or so ago she started having problems with her mouth and tongue. She knew something was not right and headed to the doctor to have it check out. The doctors came back with nothing and told her she was fine. She went to several more doctors, for more opinions. Again nothing, no answers!
Months and years go by and her pains and gut feelings never went away so her daughters best friends husband who is a doctor at the mayo clinic in Minnesota decided to take a look. My Aunt and Uncle take a drive, head to Minnesota and get another biopsy taken from her tongue. This time they get some news/results, she has tongue cancer and needs surgery to have it removed. She had cancer the whole time and all those doctors never saw it, if they would have she may not have had to go through what she is going through now. But her surgery takes place and she was cancer free for a short while before it came back and had to have surgery again and again. She has had I believe 10+ surgeries now.

Here we are now and my Aunt who loves to talk has some of her tongue gone and can still talk but is sometimes hard to understand, running her cake business and being a successful business woman that is loved by so many.

Years go by and recently she had to have a tooth removed. While they were in there they found cancer again and removed it. This time while in there they broke her jaw and never knew it. Months go by and she is having a hard time eating, talking etc and thinks I cant possibly still be having problems with this tooth and heads back to the doctors where they discover that her jaw bone was broke and it died and now needs surgery to replace the dead bone.

This is were we are today. On 12-11-12 my Aunt went in for a 14 hour surgery. While in there to replace her jaw they found more cancer and hopefully removed it all. Removed the dead and broken jaw bone and placed a plate and a new bone from her leg into the jaw and one in her tongue. They also reconnected nerves and arteries in her tongue. She is now in the hospital, highly sedated to reduce injury to the jaw and help her heel. She is on a trach and feeding tube until the send her home in about a week.

If this is not one strong lady that has been through alot, then I don't know what strong is!

Fell better soon Nana! Love you and hopefully this is the end of it all.

12-12-12

Normally days like this are not that important to me, but this day was. You see my husband is a bowler, used to be a Professional Bowler but retired from that. Every year on dates like this one he tends to bowl good, I know you are saying its all in our heads but its true. on 8-8-88 he bowled a 300/800 and on 7-7-07 he bowled a 300/800 and now last night before we left for bowling league Doug told his parents, sister and I he was going to shoot 300/800.
Well as I was finishing up my second game I look over and Doug has the from 11 strikes. I stand up to get a better look and bam Doug shoots 300. I run down there as everyone is congratulating him and give him a kiss and tell him great job. After realizing it was his second game I had to see what the first game was and he shot a 267 that game so all he needed now for a 800 is 233, that's easy enough.  I head back down to my pair and now I am pumped, Doug and I like to compete against each other and I tend to beat him more then he beats me, even though I knew I didn't stand a chance this day. But anyway so I head back down to my pair and start striking away. I shot pretty decent, finished up my bowling and headed down to see what he was doing. He finished with a 209 and fell short of his 800 but was pretty close. Now its my turn!

Another memory for the books.

Congrats Doug!