Set Back

My mom was supposed to know by now what treatments to be expecting after her surgery. Monday (last monday, the 28th) my mom woke up to a bloody incision. My dad packed her with gauze and then headed to his shift at the temple. When he returned around noon she was still bleeding and had called and made an appt. with her doctor. They took her into surgery as soon as they could to see if they could find what might be causing the bleeding. They removed a blood clot, letting them know it had bleeding since the surgery a week before but couldn't really tell why else she was having problems.
They kept her over night to try and solve the problem. Her test results wouldn't be back until the next day so they wouldn't know if she had some kind of infection until then but they put her on an IV antibiotic and kept her over night. She was supposed to come home Tuesday but they were still unsure of what was wrong...so they kept her. Wednesday they found she had staff infection but it was the "good kind" --if there's such a thing?-- and had her on antibiotics all day Wednesday. I had to work that day so I called her on my lunch to see how she was doing. I've never heard her so depressed. She was just tired of being in the hospital because she felt so good. She even told me to bring her some laundry so she had something to do.  I told her I would come see her after work to visit and told her to ask the nurses for some tape to tape her mouth into a smile so she could smile even when she didn't feel like smiling.
It was fun to visit with her and I think she was willing to do one more night in the hospital...even though she really didn't feel like being there. She was told that 12 laps around the hospital floor was equivalent to one mile so she walked 24 laps that day just to show everyone how good she really felt!
She finally got to come home on Thursday and she hasn't had the chance to slow down too much since then. All our family was in town Saturday and Sunday because my nephew was receiving his endowment in the St. George Temple getting ready to serve a mission and then Tiffani blessed her baby on Sunday. It's been a full weekend of fun and I'm glad that although my mom had the hospital visit that everything turned out for the best and she's feeling much better (actually she never FELT bad. Just bad things happened to her.)

Ready? Wrestle!

Another wrestling season has begun. Payton is so much fun to watch! I thought Porter was going to start wrestling this year. He was all talk before the first practice, telling me that he was going to beat them all down! The day of the first practice he had a melt down. He started crying and saying he wasn't going to wrestle because all the kids would beat him up. Needless to say I didn't push him (too much) and he isn't wrestling this year. He likes to get dressed for wrestling practice and if we get there in enough time he likes to warm up with all the wrestlers but that's as far as he goes!

Payton is the biggest 1st grader at practice. He's over 80 lbs. and he's almost a head taller than the biggest 1st grader. It was a little frustrating for me to watch him pair up with a partner for practice when he would choose kindergarten kids that I knew he could beat easily. During one practice the coach sent Payton up to wrestle with the 2-5 graders. That was so good for him. He had to actually work hard! The next practice I tried to talk Payton into just going with the 2-5 grade kids for practice but he wouldn't do it because "the coach didn't tell me to". Well, I kinda' lied to the boy and went and grabbed him from the preschool-1st grade side and said the coach wanted him to always practice with the bigger kids. Since then, he hasn't had a problem wrestling the older kids (heck! They're his size anyway...just older!)

His first tournament was in Parowan and he was a little apprehensive before the match started because he knew there would be a possibility that he might have to wrestle second graders because he's so big. Fortunately he got to stay with the first graders...but he was the heaviest one there was. He only had three kids (including him) in his group so the worst he could have done was bring home a bronze medal. He did what he set out to do and came home with his first gold of the season!

I'm looking forward to more matches this year. I love that he's enjoying it so much. I love that when we come home from practice and he's gotten beat by kids he just smiles and tells me how much fun he's having! It makes these tournaments (the one in Parowan, we wait from 8-11:30 for his first match to happen!) worth the time...and we're doing something together as a family!

So Far, So Good

The last post I did about my mom wasn't the most "positive" post so this one should make up for that one. Since  then, my mom has had surgery (a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy) and she's feeling really good. She had to have a drain for a few days but she's felt really good. The doctor has told her that he's removed all of the tumor and the next step is for her to start chemo or radiation. The original plan was just to do the radiation treatments so when the doctor mentioned the possibility of doing chemo therapy my parents were a little shocked...they just hadn't been planning on that part for treatment. They won't know until the first week in March when my mom has her follow up visit. Then it will be decided what treatment she will need. The best part is that the doctor was able to remove all of it and it had not gone into the lymph nodes!
My mom is such a trooper and I haven't heard her answer the phone more friendly than she does now. It's almost like nothing can stop her from being happy! (and that makes me happy!)
So there's the update. More to come....

Potty Animal

 

 Todd and I were just saying this morning how nice it is not to change diapers anymore. Although Julia still has the occasional accident {thankfully the majority are wet accidents} she is doing so good. {KNOCK ON WOOD!} I'm not a bit sorry that we started a little earlier than anticipated. I think it was Crystal's fault because she was working with her little girl, Katelyn on using the potty. Julia and Katelyn are only 3 days apart. I figured if she could do, we could at least try with Jul's. 

Now, if we can only work on what she wants to put on by herself in the mornings....I think she's going to be a fashion coordinator when she get's older. I know...the lack of her hair being done only helps the ensemble.

Reality

Julia has been on a book frenzy lately. She loves to read...and read....and read. Usually the first book she brings me is "There's a Wocket in my Pocket". Today I wanted to just sit in the rocking chair and rock her and sing to her (because I knew she was getting tired) but she had other plans and grabbed a book instead. The book she grabbed is "Love You Forever". I've always loved reading it but today I couldn't help shed a few tears as we read and sang together. Luckily, Julia didn't notice her mom sobbing at the end of the book because she was asleep by then.

If you haven't read it you are missing out. When I got to the end where the son is rocking the mother who was very old and tired and sang to her I got to thinking about my own mom. I'm not sure she'd appreciate me posting this so soon after the news but I figured I could save this as a post I can publish later if I need to. My mom recently found out she has breast cancer. The doctors found the lump was rather small so we were all hoping for the best, knowing that the possibility of it being malignant was very real, yet hoping it would be easy to get rid of. After more tests they found that it was Carcinoma Cancer and that it was invasive, meaning it wasn't in just one spot and had spread. How far it has spread is unknown until they are able to do surgery and find out. That should take place sometime next week. My mom is very optimistic about it all, which makes me feel very optimistic but there's a 15% chance that my mother will not be around in the next five years. Wow. Just typing that hurts. I'm too selfish. I need, NEED my mom around longer than that. I need her longer than five years even. I hear about people my age losing their grandparents. I can't help but feel that it's not fair. I'm not supposed to lose my mom, yet.

The reality is that I haven't lost her. And based on her attitude she's not going anywhere. Her new outlook on life is that she's making every day special and enjoying it all. I'm looking forward to tomorrow where our family will be taking part in a special fast for my mom. I truly believe there's a power in prayer and fasting. I've seen it work for my family upon many occasions. I know that my mom will be ok with whatever happens. She's just that kind of woman. I know that I will be able to accept and deal with whatever happens too because of her example. I'm grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that I am sealed to my parents so when the day does come that we have to say goodbye on this earth it's not the end for us. I'm not saying it will be easy to say goodbye but I'm saying it will be possible. It's so much easier being a member of the church when it comes to peace and comfort in times like these.

So in conclusion, the reality is this:

Mom:

I'll love you forever

I'll like you for always

As long as I'm living

My mommy you'll be.

Buckaroo's

 

Because of the glorious holiday we had Monday (Human Rights Day) and the fact that Payton was out of school, we tried to think of something fun to do that we don't usually get to do. We had two fun activities planned while our dad was in the freezing cold fishing through the ice. Payton of course woke up disappointed that his dad didn't wake him up and take him along, but Todd assured me he had talked to Payton about it the night before and had decided it would be too cold to take him.

After we got over the tears, had some breakfast, did a little laundry {very little} we made our plans...

We were going to borrow g-pa Turek's 4-wheeler and go for a ride and then we were going to meet up with Kandice around 4pm to ride her new horse, Mokey. The hard part about our plan was waiting until g-pa and g-ma Turek were out of the temple so we could ask to borrow the 4-wheeler.

We headed over to Washington and waited at g-pa and g-ma's house...and waited....and waited. They got home later than I expected but we enjoyed watching TV {since we don't have any TV other than the movies in our closet at our house}, jumping on the tramp, feeding the horses across the street, and just reading books and playing games.

By the time g-pa and g-ma got home we were able to spend about 20 minutes with them before Kandice called to let us know we could come down and ride the horse.

The kids were so excited to see the horse and actually ride it! Payton was the first to get on. I had forgotten my camera in the car so I ran really fast to get it while Kandice was leading Payton around on Mokey. When I got back, Payton was off the horse with one shoe on and one shoe off and he was crying. My first thought was that Payton had lost his shoe while riding and for some reason it made him feel bad so he was crying. I was soooo wrong. Apparently Mokey didn't like Payton on his back so he gave him a few bucks to remove him. Kandice said Payton held on really well because he didn't fall off until the fourth buck! When I talked to Payton about he said that he knew the reason he fell off was because he let go. When he let go he landed on his back and it knocked the air out of him. 

Dave was with us and had Payton get back on the horse {which is the pictures that I got of him--tears and all} and ride for a little bit. Payton was definitely ready to get off. All the other kids took their turn and then Payton was ready to get back on the horse...which I was glad. I didn't want him being scared of riding horses the rest of his life.

The rest of the riding went without any incident and the kids are ready to go ride again. Of course, I'm ready to let Dave train Mokey a little better before we get in a real riding session.

Christmas and New Years

Christmas Eve Jammies!

Can't have cookies without the milk

Payton kept adding more to the plate. Must have thought Santa really needed them...ALL!

Christmas Morning-Yup! It's the best picture I got!

It's not that Christmas and New Years wasn't worth blogging about. It's just that I haven't felt much like blogging about it...yet. I didn't take a ton of pictures on Christmas Day but we covered Christmas Eve pretty well. After our dinner of steak and eggs {which the kids hated and mom and dad loved!} we cleaned things up and got ready to have a special "night before Christmas" moment together. We talked about the real meaning of Christmas, which Payton seems to get {yeah!} and then we watched a DVD about the Nativity. After that we decided to make some cookies for Santa. While we were making them we had a knock at the door and a secret present was delivered. Inside were PJ's for the kids and a movie to watch, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". We finished the cookies, the movie and getting things ready for Santa {and his reindeer} and then it was off to bed. I had a few presents I still needed to wrap and Payton could hear me in the other room. He kept saying, "You have to go to bed, mom! Santa won't come if you're awake."

Christmas was pretty simple this year. Nothing too hard for Santa to bring. In fact, Santa kinda fell asleep and Mrs. Clause had to pinch hit this year. Luckily there wasn't anything that needed assembly. The kids did pretty well, only coming in to wake us up around 7am. 30 minutes later, Christmas was over, breakfast was started and the day had begun. The rest is history.

New Year's Eve was spent at G-pa & G-ma Turek's house. Todd stayed home with Julia and I took two of Tiff's boys with us. Tiffani had her baby so she was going to spend the night at home {for very good reason}. We didn't really do much but play the wii. I am totally regretting the fact that not picture was taken while the boys hula hooped, threw snowballs, flew like birds...and everything else Aunt Kandice made them do. Then at midnight we did the pots and pans thing, came back inside {because it was FREEZING!} and the younger kids went back to the Wii while the bigger kids played the "What if" game. Then we called it a night and the start of a new year.

Ready to bang pots and pans

 Tiff had her baby {#5-yup! She's nuts!} on December 30th. Her name is Alaina and she's the cutest little thing! I love snuggling with her, when I get the chance. Even Julia enjoyed holding her. Too bad little Laini didn't agree.