Robins and Worms

So that is what the doctor compared taking out my veins to....Robins pulling worms from the ground.  yuck!  I had to put Lidocane on the majority of my leg prior to the procedure and take this anti anxiety med of some kind.  Now, I don't often take medicine.  I haven't taken much Ibuprofen in like 5 years because of having babies, nursing, etc.  So whatever it was that I had, it made me way loopy,  Officer just kept laughing at me, because I felt so bizarre.  I was awake  for the procedure so I watched some of what they were doing, but some of it was a little painful because I wasn't very numb in a couple places, I think I cut off the circulation to Officers had for at least a good 5 minutes at one point.  I actually feel pretty good with how quickly things are coming a long after having this done.  Walking around on my trip was good,  sitting was harder because my leg was stiff and I couldn't bend it with the bulky wrap they put on it.  I felt a little stiff after taking off the big bulky wrap last night.  And not having as much compression on my leg now is making it a little more painful,  but I think most of the pain is from the bruising.  That big bruise you see - that was the 5 minutes loss of circulation to officers hand.  That was the biggest problem vein in my leg.  Anyway enjoy the photos - sorry if you get a little queasy.   

A little dejavu...

Once kids were fed and finally in bed that first night back, I was finally able to take the big bulky wrap off my leg - and just as Officer was helping me we hear a loud pop at the other end of the hour. We were both a little  concerned and Officer cleared the house - our back sliding glass door had shattered - at first we wondered if some one had shot out the glass, but gratefully it was only the inside pane of the glass. What is it with our family and shattered glass? It was 1 year ago that our Gas fireplace exploded and shattered the glass, so weird.   It looked like maybe there had been some condensation in between the panes and with a heater vent right there and the 25 degree temp out side we suspecting that is what caused it.  

Take your college roommate to work day.

So, uh this is where my old college roommate works.   

I decided that I need a minute to breathe, so I booked a trip and went to Salt Lake for Time Out for Women.  First 48 hours completely kid/pregnancy free in almost 5 years.  Why would I do that right after surgery?  Well, the surgery kept getting bumped by the Dr.  so it happened to fall in the same week.  However,  I think it was a good thing because I wasn't taking care of kids for a couple days so really it was a break and my leg felt pretty good for the most part.  When I got there I felt all giddy and excited to see her - she has stayed such a great friend over 10 years.  We stayed up way too late talking in her cute little apartment, ate way too much yummy food, and loved every minute of the conference.  Anyway,  what an amazing place to work and she does an incredible job where much is expected of her.  The temple here has been closed for nearly six months now for renovations and it was wonderful to spend the better part of a day there.  I didn't have to rush home a babysitter so I was able to just savor all of it without distraction.  To have quiet moments to be still, to ponder without interruption just doesn't happen a lot with 3 little ones at home and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.  

 This is my cute roomy and I at Time Out for Women.  There were so many great speakers,  Brad wilcox,  Sherri Dew,  Hillary weeks spoke and sang.  Emily watts,  Wendy Ulrich, and several others, but for me one highlight was when a last minute fill in speaker turned out to be Stephanie Nielson  aka nienie.  She is absolutely amazing and inspiring.  This was my first experience going to something like this and it was great to  hear so many positive, uplifting messages, celebrating womanhood, motherhood, life, etc.  I'll maybe share more detailed thoughts later, but I'm hoping that whether I travel to this or it's at home I want to make this or something similar a regular thing.     

 So I stopped at this fountain for a quick drink and my face got a drink, nice.

And this is my yummy lunch at this cute little restaurant called Blue Lemon in Salt Lake.  Don't eat your screen,  it really was that yummy. 
I missed my family and I was glad to come home,  I felt like I had a little better perspective on things and up for a challenge...got more than I bargained for though when I got home.  That perspective is lots harder to stay focused on when kids are beyond exhausted and whiny and won't stay in bed  and...its' going to take me a day to readjust.

Picking up where we left off

I love this picture - it is just happy,  I love the cute giggle in her smile as we shared this moment;  it kind of sums up my love for this wonderful woman.  She is my grandmother and one of my dearest friends.  About 6 years ago she had a stroke and has been in a nursing home for 5 years now.  I will sadly admit that I do not visit her enough, but I spent some time this afternoon with her.  How I've missed her!  There are some times in the past few years that I'm not sure if she really remembers me,  some of her memories seem very jumbled at times.  But she does remember me; sometimes just in little glimpses.  Today was that way.  It was like stepping back in time and picking right back up although so much has changed.  When she first had the stroke I was still working and didn't have any kids yet.  I would often go visit her after work to talk with her and do more Physical Therapy.  Sometimes I feel like if only I could have devoted all my time for a while to doing that for her, she would be a little better off now.  The reality is, I couldn't at the time.  I know that this current life is not something she would have chosen for herself and today we talked about that.  Do you know - she said "oh, but the lessons I've learned and the people I've been blessed to meet."  What an inspiration to me,  that in all that she currently suffers she is still able to say that our Heavenly Father has blessed her life through other people.  He has blessed my life through her.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall...

This little cupcake didn't want to go to sleep, which I've been okay with because I'm crossing my fingers that she will sleep longer tonight.  I sat her in front of this mirror tonight and she has loved to play with her new friend.  It made me think as I watched her squeal with excitement at herself;  When does that change? Seriously,  most of the time I dread looking at the tired reflection and dark circles I see.  I need to get back to loving the person I see rather than taking note of all the things I'm discontent with.  The lessons we learn from our children never cease to amaze me.

Bear Cave

Sunday afternoon we built a bear cave under our kitchen table; throw in a little popcorn and  it was hours of entertainment!

Modern Medicine

I am grateful for modern medicine.  Not that you would necessarily  remember, but with each of my pregnancies I have varicose veins that get increasingly worse each time.  A little fact that you may not know is that when you are pregnant your bodies' blood volume increases by 50% and when the extra blood in your body just sits there in your legs making them throb because the valves in the veins that are supposed to pump the blood back to the heart aren't working it becomes really uncomfortable. I compare it to when your leg falls asleep - like really bad and you start to get feeling back or like the throbbing you get when you put your entire leg in a bucket of ice water.  Try having that almost constantly unless I put my feet up, quite literally.  I wore compression hose for 2 pregnancies to help prevent it from worsening.  The reality is that they will still get worse because the crazy hormones of pregnancy also cause your blood vessels to dilate to accommodate the craziness that pregnancy causes to the body.  Don't get me wrong it is a miraculous and amazing process to grow a baby,  but the aftermath on a mommy's body is kinda crazy - at least for a while.    Honestly though, by the end of the last pregnancy, I would say the pain from the veins was far worse than the actual pain during delivery and it made it really difficult to do normal things like kneel to pray, bathe kids, and even stand (toward the very end).

Now - I am not announcing that we are trying to get pregnant or anything,  but yes we do want to have more children at some date in the future, so I talked with my doctor about what my options are for next time around.  He said yes, having another baby will make it worse whether I have the surgery or not - this I knew,  but our plan is this:  In hopes to eliminate the pain (for the most part)  they will do vein ablation on the main vein that is now 4+ times the size it should normally be.    By doing that they say it should stop the blood flow from there to all the little tributaries that branch from that main vein and hopefully alleviate the pain it causes.  Why am I sharing all this technical jargon with you?  They are doing the procedure this week,  and I'm just getting a little nervous about it, but I know it will be fine. I'm just grateful that there are such marvelous modern miracles.  So,  here is a couple of lovely before pictures and I'm hoping to say goodbye to the havoc the veins have caused.  Wish me luck.           

Blueberries

I've made my own baby food this time,  it really hasn't been too difficult now that I know how to. I know all babies are different, but she has hardly made a sour face at anything she has tried.  This was blueberries.  Mwwaah!  Couldn't you just kiss this face!   She is so much fun, except that suddenly she is wanting to nurse several times a night again - what is that about?  I'm hoping just a growth spurt, but last night I finally had to let her cry it out for a little while - I hate doing that, but every 2 hours was getting exhausting for mom. 

scrub-a-dub-dub

These three monkeys in the tub!  Cupcake is now sitting up and for 1/2 a second I let Miss Peanut hang onto her to snap a picture.  It has been a process, but I'm getting the hang of bathing 3 kids now, took me long enough.  :)

RIP

RIP - peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Pretty much everyday Handsome requests a PBJ for lunch and most of the time these are the remains left of the 1 1/2 - 2 whole sandwiches.  I'm just glad he's eating. 

A good day for couponing,

I've been couponing for a little while now, some weeks are better than others, but for the most part I'm so amazed that I can walk out of a store paying most times between 50-75% regular and sale prices.  There are plenty of times when I realize I actually could have gotten a better deal, but I'm still saving my family lots on groceries.  Today I thought I did quite well.  I paid 20.42 for everything pictured.  The coupons I had saved me $119.19, so I saved about 86% of the total retail price.  AMAZING!  I paid for my 6 month newspaper subscription in less than 1 shopping trip. Go me.

Settling in for the winter.

We have had this cough hanging around our house for about 6 weeks and I'm so over it already,  mommies are not supposed to get sick.  I even went and had a wheatgrass shot from a smoothie place hoping to kick this sooner, no such luck.  We have had too many sick days already this fall and not the fun kind where you play hookey.  I'm crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath that we'll ALL be healthy this week.    

It feels like we've been so busy, but we haven't done much other than Halloween.  We had the missionaries over for dinner on Tuesday night,  which was really fun for my kids. And we had Great-Grandpa over for dinner on Friday night which happened to be his 81st birthday!  The kids helped me make a birthday banner and we celebrated with yummy soup and homemade bread and cherry pie with a candle.  I don't know that my kids listened much, but it was fun to talk with him about his birthday memories.  

 I laughed when my grandpa asked how old Miss Peanut was.  5?, he asked.  No, 3, I replied. Then he laughed.  She will be 4 though soon, but all of my kids are getting so big already.  

Miss Peanut is practicing writing letters and reading simple words.  She loves to dance, she is learning how to use the computer and makes her own sandwiches now. She loves to help me with baby sister and  in the kitchen and even knows how to start a load of laundry (including sorting to starting it, very helpful for mommy).  She suddenly has the obsession with combing hair.  Anytime I sit down to change a bum or just sit she'll grab a brush and comb my hair.  It must be from Tangled.

Handsome is such a sweet snuggly boy, but he has also been a handful.  He loves to sing and has a great sense of rhythm with music.  We really need to get some kind of instrument in his hands soon  (I'm hoping for a piano, but...we'll see).  He loves to play cars and read books,  but every now and then while playing with big sister will come out with a tutu and say its a princess dress.  Poor dad panics of course, but he's just well rounded and plays well with 2 sisters.  He will come to Cupcake and say "I want to hold it"  and try to pick her up or sit with her.  That is how the following photo shoot started.     

Cupcake is now 6 months.  She's loving FOOD,  pretty much anything and everything thus far, except peas.  I've made my own baby food this time and it's been fun to try things with her.  We've done squash, sweet potatoes, pears, plums, blueberries, applesauce,  carrots, peas, and green beans.  She is now sitting up and then flops onto her belly to roll around and scoots in a circle, but I'm kind of hoping that she doesn't start crawling before Christmas.  She just adores big brother and sister and is all smiles to sit up with them.  Oh and she has found her voice - it is so not quiet.  She squeals when she's happy, giggly, mad, tired,  and she says ba ba ba alot. 

And finally I tried to get a pic with Miss Peanut and myself.  She was being such a goof, here is the result:

I know most people are not so excited about it,  but it snowed yesterday.  :)  And I love it!  I'm secretly hoping for lots  and lots more of it so that we can at the very minimum have a White Christmas. However, I shouldn't because Officer hates driving in it and I don't blame him... he had to work 5 extra hours last night because of it.  People were sliding off the roads all over the place.