So far, so good...

The operation was a success and Jeni will be coming home tomorrow around noon. After that, a home nurse will be coming over daily to change out the packing. Recovery time will vary between about 10 days to about 3.5 weeks when the site will close up on it's own. She's in good spirits, considering all she's been through in the last 36 hours and the last 6 weeks!

Here we go again...

This is Josh writing, so right there, you know something isn't quite right. Don't be too alarmed, but she was advised to go to the ER this afternoon and have me drive her. Her surgeon came in to check on her and some other of his patients and discovered that the hematoma had become infected, so much so that she has been admitted and will be making another trip to the OR in the morning. Tonight, he is giving her some stuff to help get rid of her continuous headache, help her sleep well and some antibiotics to give him a head start on getting rid of the infection in her body, which he will be attacking from the inside in the OR. The good news is that he found what the worst case scenario was tonight. I say it was good news because now he has an answer to a problem that has been stumping them for a while and can finally get rid of it (knock on wood) once and for all. Wish her well and pray for her speedy recovery and that this will indeed be the end of it and she will undoubtedly give you her version of the events upon her return.

I couldn't figure out how to get it on Facebook...

so here it is, a little late but still cute!

Happy Birthday Harper!

Change in plans

Well when I got to the hospital they did an ultrasound and it looks like it's not what they thought it was. He thinks it's actually a hematoma which is different and not much they can do about it. He said it's the size of a baseball (nice, huh) and will take my body a couple weeks to reabsorb it. He sent my ultrasound results to the radiologist to double check and I may have to go in Monday for a CT scan.

You know I'll keep you posted.

Guess what I'm getting this weekend?

A new drain!

Um yay?

The first thing...

I've learned in my writing class is I am not a writer.

Hopefully I will be by the end of class! :)

I can dream right?

I need a topic

for my research paper.

Any ideas? It needs to be 3-5 pages.

Anyone? Anyone?

Bueller? Bueller?

No more plastic bags.

Forget Mommy Dearest I'm living with Gracie Dearest.

I am no longer allowed to use plastic bags.

From anywhere!

Not the exchange or the commissary or any other store.

Would you like to know why? Because every time I do I now get a lecture from my darling daughter about using them.

This is how it goes...

We use the plastic bags then they are taken to the dump where the wind picks them up and blows them into the ocean. After that they float around and look like jelly fish so the sea turtles eat them and then die.

Hmm I don't want to be responsible for the death of countless sea turtles.

Good thing we already have plenty of reusable bags, if only I could remember to keep them in my car.

Grandpa

Please pray for my Grandpa.

He's in the hospital right now they think it's minor and nothing to be concerned about but please pray that everything goes smoothly and he's home soon.

My Grandpa is one of the best people I know and it's so hard to be so far away when anything happens. I just want to jump on a plane and fly home.

I love you Grandpa!

I'm drain free...

and I have an 80% chance of staying that way.

I go back next friday, the 3rd, for an ultrasound to make sure everything looks good!

Writing

Last night was my first writing class. The teacher seems nice, he seems to really enjoy teaching and has lived in Guam for 16 years so he must really love it here! There are only six people in the class so I'm sure I will really have the chance to learn a lot.

Maybe my blog posts will improve now.

We can hope, right?

My birthday

was quiet. Nothing exciting. Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!

Brianna has snacks this week at school which means she is the line leader. This makes her very happy.

Still have a fever, still have a drain. Not happy about either.

You know...

you're not at the top of your game when you put the iced tea pitcher away in the pantry.

Clarification

My previous post should have said:

"Since I don't have anything nice to say I'm not going to say anything at all."

Not to worry I'm feeling better now.

I just got home from Hooters.

Stop laughing I'm serious.

Did you know people actually take their kids there?

I had NO IDEA!

We took our kids.

They seem ok.

No permanent damage.

Well at least not from dinner.

:)

Pictures to come later.

If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all.

Today in my life...

The last couple of nights I've been running a fever and after getting some bogus (does anyone still use that word?) advice I finally got through to my doctor last night. He told me as long as it didn't get worse to stay home and see him this morning but if anything changed I needed to get myself to the ER.

STAT!

I've always wanted to say that.

Anyways nothing eventful happened last night, which wouldn't have mattered since Josh left for work at 3am, so I went this morning after getting the kids off to school and daycare.

Then it happened.

My least favorite thing in the world.

I'm sure if you've read my blog for the last week you can guess.

They put a drain back in.

I cried and told him that I did everything he told me too.

He said and I quote "It's not you, it's me."

Why do I always get the doctors with a sense of humor? :)

At least we got to go to the Seabee Ball.

My Mom was right

She told me she thought I'd lost more then 140lbs and she was correct I've actually lost over 150lbs!

Two years ago

Since I posted my before picture from last month, I thought for the people who didn't know me two years ago I would post my before, before picture.

What a difference two years makes.

I've lost about 140lbs total from this picture.

Crazy!

Yesterday

love was such an easy game to play. All my troubles seemed so far away.

Oh sorry.

Maybe I have ADD too.

:)

Anyways, yesterday, Sunday for us, was such a nice day around here. We got up and while I wasn't up for running a marathon after going to the Seabee Ball the night before I was up for getting out of the house with the family. Josh wanted to take a drive and go exploring and we wanted to see if we could try out Chilis that had just opened last week. Josh had wanted to go for his birthday but the wait was too long with the kids.

I called ahead to Chilis and they said they could take us at 1130 which gave us a little time to drive around and see some other places on the base Josh wanted to show us, then we headed out to lunch.

I think we were so excited about Chilis because it's someplace that we used to go when we were in California. It's some place we met family and friend for birthdays and celebrations or sometimes went for lunch after church on Sundays.

It's familiar.

It's home.

It's silly, I know.

So off we went. The menu was a little different but overall the same feeling. There were some problems since it just opened but I ended up with my meal free and Josh and the girls shared a free dessert so a good time was had by all!

After lunch we walked across the parking lot to the outlet mall and caught the trolley to take a ride around the hot spots for tourists. They are open air and it was a beautiful day so we had a great time. It takes about an hour to go the entire circle back to the outlet mall. The girls enjoyed it and made friends with different people as they got on and off, including the driver.

After that we decided to go for a drive. There is a road that goes across the island and Josh wanted to see where it goes so off we went. Brianna was asleep within minutes and Grace watched a movie and wrote in her journal while Josh and I got to have a nice peaceful conversation.

Anyone reading with young kids knows how rare it is to be able to just sit and talk without being interrupted 50 million times.

We stopped and got some star fruit from a road side stand and then headed home.

It was a low key nice peaceful day.

I loved it.

Sadly we have no pictures because we realized when the trolley driver tried to take our picture I had forgotten to put the memory card back in the camera.

Grace said it was ok because our brain was like one giant memory card.

I love that kid.

:)

Seabee Ball 2009

I am officially...

drain free!!!

Yay!!!

I am so excited!!!

Before & After

Before surgery:





Three weeks after:

Happy Birthday Josh!

Grace made him this sign all by herself!

Update on me

So I'm here cruising along. I still have one drain and it's making me crazy. I'm not allowed to drive yet which is, of course, a hassle. I call the doctor everyday to tell them my drain output and I go see him on Friday.

Please pray that they can pull the drain then. If not pray I don't completely freak out and take it out myself.

Ok I was joking about that last part.

Sort of.

Ugh!

A little bit of music from Guam

This was on the news here in Guam and we thought it was funny so Josh recorded it off the TV so we could put the video up!

Grace the reporter

Q&A with Brianna

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Josh made green eggs and ham for breakfast!

What a good Daddy!

At the races

Before my surgery we were out and about and Josh wanted to go to the go kart racing place. So we stopped and he went in to get information since I didn't know if they would let the girls participate. I mean really who in their right minds would set a six and four year old loose on a track.

Well not these people! LOL However they did have double cars so kids under eight could ride along with an adult. Sounded reasonable one kid with me and one with Josh and he was a happy camper to get to drive the go karts.

So we all go into the place and I walk up to the counter and tell the woman my husband and I would like to drive with the girls riding with each of use. Well she takes on look at Grace and tells her she is big enough to drive herself.

Wait, what?

I explain to the woman that they had just told my husband that the kids had to be eight and sadly my daughter was only six. The woman's response?

"Oh no! She TALL! She drive herself."

Of course Grace was over the moon excited at the thought of driving herself around the track. So off we go the watch the safety video. I explained to Grace that she had to pay close attention because this was going to tell her what to do out on the track.

After the video they take up back to get ready, hair covers, helmets, gloves and we were ready.

We go out to the track and Josh ended up in the car with Brianna, not the wisest choice there, then Grace is next and finally it's me. Off we go and Grace did SUCH a great job, she followed all the rules to the letter and had a great time!

Josh was flying around the track and when we were all done I asked Brianna how she liked it and she looked at me with a rather dazed expression and said "Daddy went really fast"!!! She had fun though and they are both excited to do it again someday.

I had asked the guy working at the track if he would mind taking a couple pictures for us, hope he would get one of each of us driving but he was totally into it! He must have taken at least 40 pictures! He was running all over, crouching down and waiting for us to come up to him to get that perfect shot. He did a great job and I thanked him very much!

Moments of Grace

Grace continues to amaze us. She is growing up before our eyes and is making more and more good decisions. Words can't describe how it feels to see her do something that she had been struggling with without a fight.

Here are a couple of things that have happened lately, some big, some small, but all rewarding.

The girls have matching pink twin size blankets and because of the size and weight I've been using Brianna's since I got home from the hospital. Well last night Brianna decided she wanted that blanket back but I was using it so Josh asked Grace if Brianna could use hers. Now normally Grace would have said no on principal even though she wasn't using the blanket but she said sure Brianna could use it for as long as she wanted! Not a huge deal but nice all the same.

The night before that while Josh was putting Brianna to bed she was upset because her nightlight had burned out. The overhead lights are on a dimmer so it's not a huge deal but to Brianna it was. Well Grace overhead the conversation from her bedroom and came into Brianna's room with her nightlight and gave it to her and said she didn't need it so Brianna could have it. What a sweetheart!!!

The last Grace story I want to share is from Sunday. First I'll give a little back story. There is a new park that has built behind our house. It's been done for a while hasn't been approved to be opened so their has been plastic orange fencing around the park. Well last week it was pretty windy and the orange fencing was blown down so it looked like the park was open when in fact it wasn't. Josh checked with the builder on Friday and he confirmed that it was still closed. So fast forward to Sunday, Grace comes in the house and said the girl across the street told her that the new part was open and that she had even played there the day before. Grace came in the house and was all excited because she has really been wanting to play at this park. Josh told her that while it looked like it was open it really wasn't and the wind had just blown the fence down. Grace was pretty sure Josh was wrong and her friend was right but finally believed him that the park was not really open and they couldn't play there yet. Later that same day the teenager next door (who has babysat for us before) came over and asked if she could take the girls to the park. We didn't have any problem that since it's not the first time she has taken them (there are other parks in the neighborhood that are actually open) so off the girls went. After about 15min Grace comes back in the house and she is crying. At first it was hard to figure out what had happened but eventually she calmed down to tell us that they had walked to the new park that Grace knows isn't open. When Grace told the neighbor girl it wasn't open and that they weren't allowed to play there she didn't believe her and said that was where they were going and for Grace not to talk back ( I'm sure she did think it was open since the fencing was gone from around the park, even though the stands were still there) well Grace said that they couldn't stay and play there and tried to get Brianna to come home with her and Brianna wouldn't so Grace came home very upset.

Wow!

I told Grace she was not in any trouble, that she had no reason to be upset because she had done everything right in that situation! We were SO PROUD of her! Even though she wanted to play at that park she knew we didn't want her too and she stood up to someone older then she is and when she didn't listen she tried to get Brianna to come home with her and when she wouldn't she came home and talked to us. What a big girl!!! We told her how proud we were of her and how we know it was hard to stand up to someone even when it was something she wanted to do.

My baby is growing up and it's so amazing to see her making good choices and being able to stand up and say when she knows something is right or wrong.

This is much harder...

then I thought it was going to be.

I'm still here, barely. :) I'm kidding, Mom!

Josh ended up taking two weeks off, did I mention that? Thank goodness because he has been a huge help around here. The girls are doing good and he has been great keeping up with them and the house.

Meanwhile I just sit around and feel sorry for myself. Oh wait not ALL the time.

Sometimes I'm sleeping. :)