Update on my Mom

So my mom had a dr. appt. today where we got the results of her PET Scan she had done on Tuesday. The PET Scan is the way that they look at her tumors to see if they are growing/shrinking, more of them/less of them, active/less active. After the last 2 scans have come back not so good we were a little nervous about this one.

But there is good news! The cells have shrunk and there are not any new ones! Yippee Skippee! The last scan showed the cells growing and more of them and now it has turned around and is heading back in the right direction. Thank you Heavenly Father! Thank you, thank you!

They are going to be switching her chemo again (4th one now) because she is approaching the limit of how much she can have of that one. The dr. says that there are A LOT of different kinds of chemos to try. You never know if the new chemo is going to work or not. Chemo #1 started off working GREAT! They couldn't believe how quickly the cells were shrinking but then all of the sudden it stopped. Chemo #2 didn't work for her and the tumors grew and there were more of them. Chemo #3 has worked but she can't have any more of that one so onto Chemo #4.

Please keep her in your prayers that chemo #4 will work. She has been on chemo for a year and a half now. Wow - I can't believe it has been that long. She is so strong! 

Way to go Mom! I love you!

Healthy Eaters Unite!

So we try to be healthy eaters. We do good for awhile but then get rushed, lazy or forgetful and I end up buying food with all the preservative and yucky stuff in them. Then the mom-guilt sets in and you know how that goes.

I struggle with understanding labels and knowing if something is as healthy as the label claims.

I am looking for ideas for healthy foods / snacks / dinners / lunches / etc. 

PLEASE SEND ME ANY IDEAS!!!

I don't like to buy things that we haven't tried because I don't like throwing food away so if you have any suggestions that your family loves, I am all ears! I went to Trader Joe's today and got some food that friends had recommended and we had tried at their houses. 

I got on a recipe website and looked for healthy recipes and found 1 we really liked (plus it was really easy too - can you say Crock-pot?!) and 2 that we thought were good.

With work, I just don't have a lot of time to research foods, recipes, etc and could use any help anyone is willing to give!

Another exciting Friday night!

Yes, it is another exciting Friday night in our house. And no, it did not include another run to Walmart for TP! Ha ha!

The girls are spending the night at Grammy and Papa’s and Evan had a neighbors birthday party to attend so Kurt and I had the night to our selves. FREEDOM!

F to the R to the E to the E to the D to the O to the M!

FREEDOM!

So what did we do, you might ask, with all our freedom? Well, I watched a movie while Kurt slept.

Yes, my date was out cold on the couch at 6 pm. Ya-who - what a night! I knew he would be tired after working another really long, hard week (yesterday he worked side-by-side with our guys for 13.5 hours!) but I thought I might at least get dinner out of him. No such luck - I had Nilla Wafers for dinner. Later I found some almonds and some frozen rolls that I warmed up, which I am currently eating. Along with some weird juice but whatever, it’s food.

Now, back in the dating days, I would say that a date asleep on the couch at 6 pm was not a good sign and that maybe the date wasn’t going so good. 

But in married life it means something completely different. 

It means security, comfort, commitment.

It means that my man worked his tush off the last 12 days without 1 day of rest (remember he worked the home-show all last weekend). Not only did he do his normal job of running the crews but he was out working with the crews, driving the bobcat, digging dirt, dealing with cranky homeowners (what was up with people last week?). 

This man worked the equivalent of 3 men the last 2 weeks so I will gladly sit here and watch a movie while he gets the much needed, much deserved rest. I didn’t have the heart to wake him to ask to go out for dinner. 

He sacrificed so much for us these last few weeks, I will happily eat Nilla Wafers, almonds, rolls and funky juice for dinner.

But I do have to say: I’ve gotta go shopping!

Updates

So here is our booth.

I'm not sure if you can actually call it a booth because technically, I think it would classify as a yard.

Kurt does an amazing job. Everyone is always blown away by his "booths". I think he has the best booths! (I realize I may be a bit biased but I am incredibly proud of my man!)

I teased him that every year his booth keeps getting bigger and bigger. He explained that it wasn't getting bigger but that the bathrooms (which are straight across from the booth) are getting closer. Ahhh, that makes sense! Funny boy!

Here is a better shot of the deck with the fireplace behind it.

Here is the only shot we have of the deck. You can get a good idea of how pretty it was.

Here is a picture of the BBQ island - decorated by April!

And the sad new is that was all torn out today.

Gone.

No longer there.

Incredible.

Kurt has had this particular spot for several years now and the kids have been going up there since they were little to see "Daddy's work". There is a tree that the kids love to climb.

Here is shot of our little monkeys this year:

We have been taking pictures of them in this tree every show - 2 shows a year for 4 years now. Here are their first pics and this years pics.

Evan then (1 1/2):

Evan now:

Hailey then (1 1/2):

(Not the best pic, I realize. I have better ones but I just can't find them)

Found a better picture:

Hailey now:

Kayla then (3):

Kayla now:

Funny - I just noticed the girls are in the same colors as when they were little. Ironic!

Have I mentioned how much we love this guy?

Every night when he comes home the kids run out and climb into the truck before he can even get out so they can give him hugs and kisses.

So much love!

Husband? What Husband?

That's right - it is home show time again which means that for the last 2 weeks Kurt has basically been MIA. We get glimpses of him here and there so we know he is still around - haha. It always amazes me how a 3 day show can consume so much time getting everything ready and organized. 

In all honesty we know our knight in shining armor is out battling the dragons in 100+ degree temps so he can provide and protect our family. We are so grateful to him and his dedication to our family and company. He truly is our warrior and we are so proud of him. 

If I can get some good pics of the booth I will post them. It is unbelievable and pictures just won't do it justice but hopefully we can get some decent ones. This show is outside and Kurt invited a custom home builder to join him in his booth. The booth includes:  a facade of a back of a house, beautiful trex deck, huge and beefy arbor, rock fireplace, pavers, walls, water feature, BBQ with granite tile and many other amazing elements. April did a wonderful job decorating the booth (I think we may just have her come decorate our house for us - she has a special talent!). My mom said that she always wonders how Kurt is going to top what he did the previous year but that he always manages to do it. I am scared to see what next year will bring!

With Kurt gone so much I have time to think and ponder about things. For example, what song would be a good theme song for me or what slogan would fit my life - you know, the important things of life! Ha ha! Anyways, this morning I had a revelation: I was thinking about my theme song and I concluded that my song should be from Alice in Wonderland, the little white rabbit "I'm late, I'm late, no time for this, no time for late, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late". (I can't remember the actual words but it is something like that).

This made me sad.

Sad because it is so true. 

I rush from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next, all day long. I rush to get the kids up, rush to make lunches, rush to get them to school, rush to the office, rush to get as much work done as possible, rush to pick the girls up from school, rush home, rush to get homework done, rush to finish the work I brought home, rush to cook dinner, rush to do dishes, rush to get everyone to bed and then collapse. I always feel like I have an anxious need to hurry and get to the next thing. No wonder I am EXHAUSTED all the time!

But Saturday opened my eyes - it was a great day. The kids and I just took our time running errands and we had a great time. I wasn't so snappy, they weren't so whiney and we were all happy. Yes, I had 100 things to do but for some reason I didn't feel the need to rush and it was wonderful!

My doctor once told me that my kidneys are spilling protein because my internal RPM's are revved too high - meaning I push myself to go too fast and my body is paying the price. I guess I have just become accustomed to living at that speed and didn't realize I was still doing it; not until Saturday anyways. Even as I sit here typing I have this anxious feeling to get up and go, go go! But I am using all my strength to sit here, relax and type.

I need to learn to chill, to relax, to enjoy the moment. 

So this is my goal - SLOW DOWN.

Wish me luck!

Well, this is a first!

We are completely out of toilet paper.

And I don't mean the last roll was just put on the roller-holder-thingy (what are those called anyways?).

I don't mean that all the bathrooms are low on TP.

I mean all 3 bathrooms are completely TP free.

Not one square is left anywhere!

How did this happen? I usually have a huge Costco/Sam's Club package or two in the garage. There must be a TP monster in the neighborhood or something!

Thank goodness for the box of Kleenex I got when I was sick a few weeks ago!

So now you all know my exciting plans for this Friday night - a run to Walmart for TP.

Don't I live a wild life!!

Say What?

So my ears are still clogged - that makes 8 days now. I took my last antibiotic last night so I am hoping that my ears "pop" soon. I feel like I have been living up in an airplane or underwater or something. I can do ok but I have to focus on who is talking to me and if there is any back ground noise, i.e. kids talking, tv, fan blowing, etc. I have a really hard time hearing what the person is saying.

Kurt and the kids have gotten quite the kick out of my answers to some of their questions. I would give an answer to the question that I thought I heard but apparently they asked a completely different question and therefore my answer would make no sense at all or go against the rules (like eating upstairs - the kids tried to jump all over this one).

It has been quite funny but I am done with clogged ears. If only I could yawn or something to get them to pop but nothing has worked thus far.

Any suggestions?

It just wasn't meant to be . . .

. . . and we are sooooo sad!

We are supposed to be in Utah right now. We are supposed to be staying with our dear friends Mike & Linds. Our kids are supposed to be having a blast playing with their kids. We are supposed to be visiting family. We are supposed to be visiting friends.

But we aren't and we are sad.

Kurt's cousin, Nicole, is getting married in the Salt Lake Temple on Wednesday and all her family from the east coast are going to be in UT, so we couldn't miss the opportunity to go see everyone since they are going to be so relatively close. But I am still sick (confirmed sinus infection) and in no condition to travel and be around other people so we have finally concluded that it just wasn't meant to be for us to go right now. So sad.

I'm starting to slightly feel better. I was going to try to go to church today, at least to teach my class, but Kurt told me I had to stay home and rest. You know how infants get that bald spot on the back of their heads from laying down so much? I think I'm starting to get one of those since I have been laying down and resting all week! Ha ha - let's hope not!

Friday night/Saturday morning was the worst. I have hardly slept all week (only in 1-2 hour chunks, then up for 2-3 hours) since my head hurt so bad - so it is safe to say that I am exhausted! Friday night I went to bed at 8pm, coughed until 10 when I finally feel asleep and then woke up at 12 am with some unpleasant side effects to the antibiotic I started taking Friday night. I was up until 4:30 am watching tv downstairs and trying to convince my stomach not to get sick. Finally at 4:30 I thought I might be able to fall asleep - the pressure had partially subsided from my head FINALLY! I laid there until 5:30 when Kurt came down. He wanted to show me a video on Youtube - sure, why not? I'm not sleeping anyways.

It was in Africa with animals. I immediately handed it back to him - "I don't want to see anything get eaten" I told him. I don't like the food chain. I understand the food chain but I don't like it and I really don't like to see it. I don't like to see animals scared, hurt, fighting, etc. That is why I live in the suburbs, not Africa. No animals run around here eating each other, not that I see anyways. "Nothing gets eaten. You have to see this. It is incredible" he tells me. Fine.

Now I do have to say that in the big picture, it was incredible, but unfortunately in my fragile emotionally exhausted state, I didn't see the big picture. It was a video of animals, I'm not sure what they were - bulls, no. buffalo, no. elk, no. I don't know but they reminded me of bull/cow type animal. Anyways, a herd of them were walking and lions attacked and got a calf. WHAT? Food chain with a baby involved! I handed it back to him, again. "No, you have to see what happens". Long story short, the herd of whatever comes back, kicks some lion tush and gets the calf back. Great! 

Except all I can see, again in the mental state that I was in, was the baby whatever get attacked by two lions, then tug of war is played with the baby between 2 lions and a crocodile, then the lions drag it back up the river bank and sit on it, then somehow the whatevers kick the lions off of it and the baby walks back into the herd. It may not have been eaten but it surely has to be severely injured and I can't see it possibly surviving its wounds. 

So what do I do? I threw the phone back a Kurt and I just fell apart. Completely, totally sobbing. I lost it! And there go the sinus - completely packed again!

The toll of the week just came flowing out of me. Now Kurt, not realizing I have been up since 12 am, was totally shocked at my reaction and didn't know what to do, poor guy.

I am pretty sure I wouldn't have liked the video if I had been healthy either. Too much pain and agony for me but it was truly amazing to see that herd group back together and come fight for the baby. Not only fight but win against lions. Incredible. 

I just don't think Kurt will be showing me any more animal videos anytime soon!

Children's Tylenol ROCKS!

Yes, I said Children's Tylenol. Yes, it says "Ages 2 - 6" on the front. And yes, I took 6 of them - that is only how high the chart goes "11 years and up to 95 pounds = 6 chewables" - I probably should take 8 since I am slightly older than 11 and slightly heavier than 95 lbs but 6 seem to be working.

I am still sick and have been couch/bed ridden since Tuesday. Although I must be feeling better since I have managed to make it to the computer =) I actually have a dr. appt today because I think I have a sinus infection - either that or my head is just going to explode one of these days. We are hoping for the sinus infection. So remember I am sick, there very well may be type-o's and misspellings - just ignore those!

Anyways, "why take children's medicine?" you might ask yourself - let me explain:

For Thanksgiving 2005 we went to Packwood, WA to spend it with April & Rick in their cabins they have built there (beautiful location - if you want a wonderful vacation spot, this is it! They rent them out - let me know if you are interested!) We had a great time but toward the end of the trip I got a cold and by the time we left, my throat felt like it was on fire!

It was a 2 day trip home for us and so when we stopped at a hotel late at night, I was in pain! My throat hurt so bad. Evan was only 8 weeks old, Hailey was 3 and Kayla was almost 5. The girls were asleep and I had fed Evan and given him to Kurt to rock to sleep. I decided to take some Tylenol so that when I woke up in a few hours to feed Evan again, I would already have pain meds in me so hopefully my throat wouldn't hurt too bad. Well, I went to the sink, filled my glass with water, popped the first pill in my mouth, chugged some water and . . .

it LODGED in my throat! I couldn't breath, swallow, nothing. I grabbed more water but it just kept coming back out my mouth. I ran over to Kurt, who was asleep with Evan on his chest, shake him awake and I was pounding on my chest because I couldn't talk. Kurt bolts awake, tossed (sounds better than threw) Evan on the bed and starts pounding on my back, trying to give me the hymlick (?) and we both start freaking out because it isn't working. He runs to the phone to call 911 and he can't figure out how to get a line out. He calls the front desk and is screaming "She's choking" to whoever anwered the call. At this point I thought I was going to die in this hotel room with my 3 kids just feet away. Awful feeling!

While Kurt was on the phone I was able to calm down a bit and realize that I could get some air, although my breathing was hindered. I kept trying to drink more water but I would just make this awful gurgling noise and the water would just come right back up.

Finally we heard sirens. We waited. Nobody. Waited some more. Nobody. Did they stop to get something to eat or what? The paramedics couldn't find our room so Kurt runs out to flag them down and get them to our room.

Their advice: drink some water! Duh, I have already been trying that! And because I was technically breathing they couldn't touch me. WHAT? So the 3 paramedics stand there watch me try to drink more water, watch me gurgle and watch it all come right back up. We waited. They said that it should dissolve and I should be able to swollow it. Drank more water, water came back up, pill didn't go down. It was stuck right on the "fire" spot on my throat so their guess was that my throat was swollen and that is why it got stuck. It wasn't dissolving because it was completely surrounded by my throat tissue and the water wasn't able to get around it to help it dissolve.

At one point Kurt started banging on my back again trying to do something because they obviously weren't doing anything to help me. One of the guys said "Uh, sir, I wouldn't do that. You could dislodge it and make it worse". I understand but come on, someone do something!

So after I don't know how much time, we decided it wasn't dissolving (they had put another pill in a cup of water to see how quickly it would dissolve and it did so rather rapidly) and they needed to take me to the hospital and give me a muscle relaxer. Kurt starts trying to figure out how he is going to carry 3 sleeping kids into the ER. I started getting upset because I don't want my 3 babies in the dirty ER. One of the paramedics went to get the stretcher, the others start taking down all my info and Kurt starts packing Evan's diaper bag when all of the sudden I SWOLLOWED THE PILL!

Oh, the relief.

I can't even describe the relief I felt. I didn't have to go to the ER, we didn't have to wake the kids (who, by the way, slept through all of this!) and I wasn't dead!

After the paramedics left, Kurt and I just hugged each other and cried, okay, sobbed. We had both been so scared. I don't think either of us slept much after that but I do have to say that my sore throat was gone. Tylenol lodged in a sore throat cures it quickly, although, I don't recommend this treatment to anyone!

I have had other trouble swollowing pills and so after this incident I avoid them at all cost!

So that is why I prefer Children's Chewable Tylenol Meltaways, Bubble-gum flavor!