Missing My Hubby (& Puppies)

This Thanksgiving Linc & I pulled a "Greg & Nora"...ha ha! I will be VERY impressed if anyone knows what that is from! If so, post a comment. If not, I'll tell you soon. I've been waiting to use that line. :) Anyway, it means that Lincoln & I are apart for the holidays! I am in Utah right now & he is at home. He had to work on Thanksgiving & wanted to see his family...so we decided to go our separate ways. Linc & I had a little "discussion" about him getting off work to come, but in the end we decided that we had already spent 4 Thanksgivings together since we've been married... so was it really necessary to be with each other this year? Well, I just have to say that I REALLY missed him! Things aren't quite the same without your second half there! I am having a really tough time with my pain too (My doc (not the new one) didn't prescribe me pain meds again! Don't get me started on that!) and I didn't realize how much I lean on Lincoln for support until he wasn't here. :( Anyway, I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Hopefully I'll have some fun pics to post when I get back!

The Right to Brag...

I believe that everyone has the right to brag sometimes. I am reading the posts in which you brag about your children & I think to myself..."I want to brag! What can I brag about?" I am somewhat desperate to brag, so here you go...
The first thing you should be jealous of is how great I look in pink hats. Who knew?! Here are Amber, Camryn & I at the Progressive Dinner for Enrichment.

And the second brag topic of the night....DAISY & DUKE!!! Oh, I feel so proud. :)

The above pictures prove that Daisy loves us...and Duke does too, I just don't have any pictures to prove it. Get ready to be amazed!

Words Daisy & Duke Understand:
Outside

Eat

Lincoln
Walk (their favorite word)

No

Don't bite (although they don't always listen)

Go to the bathroom

Treat

Ball

Stay there

Is anyone jealous? That's what I thought. Don't be...you still haven't seen me pick my nose with my tongue. THAT might be something to be jealous about.

Answered Prayers

What I was doing at this time last year: waiting for surgery #6... Having surgery seems to be somewhat of a holiday tradition for me now. My new doctor will be calling me in a few days to schedule another surgery! That means that Lincoln will fall in love with me all over again when he sees me in my sexy hospital gown & cap...this will be the third surgery I've had since we've been married, and surgery #7 overall.

I know these pictures are some of my very best! What's a post without pics?! :)

I went to my long-awaited ob/gyn appointment today & let me just tell you...IT WENT BETTER THAN I HAD EVEN HOPED IT WOULD!!! My new doctor is perfect! I love her! If I could write down every single thing I want in an ob/gyn, she would fit the list completely. This really is an answer to my prayers! I was feeling very discouraged and apprehensive when I woke up this morning. I kind of hit a wall these past few days. I just don't feel like I can take this pain anymore! It is there all the time & it just seems to keep getting worse. When it is at its worst, even while on Vicodin, I can hardly gear myself up to even take a shower & get ready. I've been having to take it really easy, and when I'm not feelng well, sometimes the thought of even being around people and having to try to put on a happy face is more than I can handle! So needless to say, I am completely at the end of my rope.

Now I have a very strong sense of HOPE and FAITH that everything will turn out well! I am SO, SO excited to have another surgery. Not many people can say that...but I know this means that I will have at least 4 months of feeling great. Add acupuncture to my recovery (which I haven't had in the past) and I think things will turn out really well. My plan is to go to a new fertility specialist right after my surgery and work really hard to get pregnant before my pain comes back. My acupuncturist, family doctor, my new ob/gyn & I are all on the same page, which means I'll have these amazing people to help me to carry out my plan! I couldn't be happier. I am in awe when I think that Heavenly Father would help me find such an amazing doctor & that He would help me to know EXACTLY what I need to do at this point in my life. I feel so unworthy of that sometimes! The Spirit is truly amazing...I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to have Him as my constant companion. I really appreciate good friends & family who support me in this. Thanks a million!

Here's to an effective surgery & a speedy recovery!!! I am hoping that my surgery will be scheduled for sometime before Christmas...I'll post the surgery date when I find out.

Uneventful Week...

It's kind of amazing to me that whenever I have a responsiblity in Primary, I end up being able to find the strength and energy to do it...and to do a decent job at it! The last few days have been filled with sharing time, making tons of paper turkeys & Runts/sugar cone cornucopias for the Primary teachers (thanks for your help Erica) & dessert for our big Teacher Appreciation night. It went well & with Jana's help too (knowing I had taken on way too much) I got everything done! Today I just crashed! I've been watching tv and looking at blogs & slowly washing the dishes...that's all I've done today. Tomorrow is my doctors appointment...hooray! I hope I am not disappointed...I have been waiting for it for quite awhile.

Lincoln has been a champ. He is usually good about everything, but then does something extremely nice, which prompts a "my husband is so great" post. This week he has done so many "extremely nice" things, I can't even dedicate one post to his kind acts...it's a good thing he probably won't read this because he hates when I say nice things about him. :) Today we were coming up with a plan of how I could get our house clean and not send Linc to work or school every night without dinner. He came up with the idea of spending 15 minutes a day cleaning each room in the house & asked me a few times, "But is that too much for you to do?". I just keep telling myself that baby steps are good enough for now...I guess we will see!!!

P.S.-I'll probably post tomorrow about my doctor's appointment...wish me luck!

Early Snow!

When I saw all this "snow" covering my front room last night I had the thought that maybe Christmas had come early! I was posting some stuff on Facebook & wasn't paying attention to the puppies. I looked over & this is what I saw...well, I figured they had ruined the pillow already so I just let them keep tearing it apart. Doesn't Duke look like Santa with that fluff hanging off his chin? They were doing so well at not biting or tearing anything up but they are going through this second chewing phase. Hopefully nothing else gets ruined before they get over this little stage in their lives! :) I do have to say though....I have been laying on the couch a lot lately because my pain is really bad & they are so cute & are constantly cuddling with me. I'm glad to have the company! Even if now I have an uneven number of pillows on my couches! :)

Happy Bday Steven Seagal!

Last night we went to Olive Garden to celebrate Steve's bday. The food was yummy & the company was great! We are really grateful for Steve & Erica & for their friendship. If you want to know our secrets, just ask these guys. :) We know each other almost too well! Ha ha. Anyway, we just wanted to wish Steve a happy bday and let him know that we appreciate the person that he is! We hope you have a great day Steve!

Professional Chefs Make The Best Friends

Our new neighbors (& friends) Jorge, Jo & Nala invited Lincoln & I over for a BBQ on Sunday. Well, Jorge is a professional chef so we knew the food would be good...but I was not prepared for how EXTREMELY DELICIOUS it was! Wow, I can't even put it into words...he served us a full-on meal with different courses and everything! To start with, we had this yummy shrimp wrapped in bacon (he called it a fancier name, but I can't remember what it was) on salad & some HEAVENLY corn bisque. Next came grilled chicken, ribs & potato salad. The last course was this yummy chocolate dessert with fresh cream on the side. Wow, you should have heard how many times I exclaimed how good the food was. I was embarassed by the end because I could not stop talking about it! I really wanted to take a picture of the first course (which was my absolute favorite) but it wasn't until the last course that I actually had worked up the courage to pull out my cell phone to take a picture of it. After all, this was the first time we had all officially hung out together...I'm sure they thought I was completely crazy when they told them that the pic was for my blog! Anyway, we had a good time getting to know our new neighbors better. We played Clue after dinner & I won...I never win that game! And yes, that means that I've actually played it many times since I was a little kid...thanks Moaks! :) But back to the food...it was DIVINE!!! And I am allowing you to be jealous...trust me, you would have given your right arm for this food. I can't get the corn bisque off my mind & am constantly imagining the taste of it over & over again. Ok, I think that's enough...can you tell that I appreciate good food? :)

Microsoft Office OneNote

I am loving a new computer program that we got from our neighbor today (you're awesome Lorraine!) called Microsoft OneNote. Has anyone ever used it before? I had never heard of it. It is my DREAM COME TRUE! I really love what I've seen of the program so far. I absolutely LOVE to file, type, and do anything else that is office-related. Seriously, even if I had a degree, I think my dream job would still be to be some sort of secretary. Is that crazy? That stuff is just so therapeutic for me. This program has so many awesome organizational tools & I have just been going crazy over it! I can't wait to make all kinds of awesome charts & lists & everything else! I know, I know...please don't be jealous of my exciting life! And please don't judge me for my weird passions. :)

Thanks Babe

Just wanted to thank Lincoln for all of his help lately...he has put up with my analyzing and worrying and everything else! Actually I did want to post too, to say that even though my pain hasn't let up a ton, I am doing better. My dad gave me a priesthood blessing which helped immensely in raising my spirits. I have always been able to ask my dad for a blessing day or night (which happened a lot in high school at 2am when I was awake & in pain) & he was always extremely nice about giving me one. My parents & brother & sister also gave Linc & I a gift card to buy groceries with the other day, since money is tight...so, so nice! It was money they were going to use to go out to a nice dinner & they spent it on us instead. THANK YOU to them! Anyway, back to my original reason for posting. I have said this before, but Linc has a CRAZY BUSY schedule. I have no idea how he & I (mostly he) are surviving it! Our date for the week was going to be going to Target tonight for an hour & we ended up not even having time to do that. So needless to say, he doesn't need anything else on his plate right now...yet he has to deal with all of this health stuff with me, and has had to for most of our marriage. He never complains about me not feeling well. I'm really not saying he's perfect :) but in that area he is great. I guarantee if it were me, I would let something slip once in awhile about how I was frustrated or upset about all of it...but he doesn't. THANK YOU LINCOLN for not making me feel like a burden. Thank you for trusting that I am trying my hardest. Thank you for picking up the slack. It does not go unnoticed! Love you!
P.S.-This pic is from Christmas last year when he wasn't getting any sleep & was crazy busy & dealing with all of my pain...poor guy. :(

A Crappy Day (no pun intended)

I love posting exciting, happy things on my blog. But today you get something different... a nice little post about my bad day. Earlier today my doctor called me to tell me that she is putting me on a stronger pain medication...not my favorite news, but I was thankful that my doc is at least paying attention to what is going on with me. I think I cried twice to Linc today about how my health just completely sucks. A 5-month break wasn't long enough for me! Lincoln's days have been filled with texts from me asking him to pick up my meds, figure out something for dinner, take the dogs on a walk when he gets home, etc. It's a good thing he only works full-time, goes to school full-time, & works for my dad on his day off. But wait...it gets better! It's 2:20am. (My time stamp is messed up.) Guess what I've been doing for the last hour and a half? SCOURING MY FLOOR! Guess why? Well, all of your blogs were beckoning to me so I came upstairs and looked at them for 30 minutes on my computer. My puppies were happily playing downstairs...or so I thought. Suddenly I smell something...POOP. I run downstairs and I see poop SMEARED ALL OVER the tile downstairs. I counted it in twelve different places plus four puddles of pee. (I had to count so I could text Linc the exact numbers so that he knew exactly what he was missing out on.) Don't worry...I stepped in all 4 puddles of pee while looking for all of the places that they pooped. Oh, and the puppies ruined my favorite Nike sandals about an hour before that. This day just keeps getting better & better. Do you want to know something terrible? I have been thinking that the longer I stay up, the shorter tomorrow will be...thus the less bad things that can happen to me. Ha ha, pretty pathetic huh? Am I the only one that has days like this? By the way, I don't think my life is over or anything. I've dealt with much bigger things...but sometimes when all of those little things add up...it can just drive you completely crazy. P.S.-I am proud to say that I still love my puppies though. :)

Visit from Heather

Meet my friend Heather...we've been friends since we were 13 I think. She paid me a visit the night after I got out of the ER & it really cheered me up. She is so good at supporting me...she has visited me after 5 of the 6 surgeries I've had (she was out of town for one of them) and always tries to be aware of what is going on with me & my health. Thank you so much Heather. You've really taught me about friendship & what a friend should do & be!
Here is a lovely picture she took of me while she was over. Chances are, if you come over this is how you will find me. The heating pad & puppies are my comforts right now. :) Almost every night the puppies fall asleep on the couch next to me. It has kind of become our nightly ritual. Today was a pretty hard day. I didn't really get anything accomplished...except for the gazillion posts on my blog. :) My doc prescribed me Tramadol...I am supposed to take one pill three times a day. Well, that wasn't cutting it so I've been taking 2 extra strength Tylenol in between. THAT's not cutting it either, so now I am taking the Tylenol & twice as much Tramadol...basically the most I can take. It REALLY sucks. I hate taking pain medicine because I can't focus well enough to read for long periods of time & I have a hard time concentrating in conversations. Plus it throws off my sleep schedule & sometimes I feel too out-of-it to drive. I am REALLY hoping that things get better soon. I'm really not enjoying this! P.S.-I have an appointment with a new ob/gyn on Nov. 20th. Let's hope we can come up with a plan!!!

Fun in Snowflake

Last week we received the news that Lincoln's brother & his wife & kids would be moving to Texas! We were quite sad, but are excited for them to be able to experience new things. Linc was lucky enough to have someone pick up his shift on Saturday so that we could go up to Snowflake to see them before they move. It was great for Lincoln I to be able to spend some time together...time with each other has been VERY scarce lately. :( We always have our best talks on road trips. Those talks always remind me of why I married him...I love that we have such differing views on things. We really make each other think. When we got up there, Daisy & Duke's great-great-grandpa stopped by...he lives next-door to Linc's parents & yes, believe it or not, he is still alive! Here they are checking him out.
Daisy has mastered the art of begging. Here she is begging for a treat. How can you say no to that cute little face? :)
We had to tell Claire multiple times that she wasn't allowed to feed her roll or cookies to the puppies. :)
Playing in their dog food kept her entertained for awhile. :)

Haunted Corn Maze

I didn't think that Lincoln would be able to be part of the maze this year, but I was wrong! He was so excited to be the scarecrow on the zip line. He stood on this really tall platform above everyone's heads in the maze. He'd stand really still and then people would kind of stop and look up at him. He had a harness on, & would fly down the zip line after everyone. They would take off running but the zip line was faster than them, so he would make it to the ground in front of them & turn around & start running toward them. I didn't get so see him do it, but I saw his cousin Cole do the same thing, & it was pretty crazy. I guess Linc went after a group of girls who started freaking out & ran straight into the caution tape at the end of the row! I didn't feel good enough to be a witch again like I was last time, so I just hung out with Aunt Robin taking tickets.

Towards the end, Matt & Danielle came with their friends and Linc turned his job over to Cole so that we could all go through the maze together. It was a lot of fun! Danielle was hilarious to watch & to listen to...I think she got so scared, that she probably had nightmares that night. :) I think I won for the loudest scream of the night. :) If Linc looks tired in these pics, it's because he was awake from Friday morning to Saturday night.

A Time for Reflection

After Stake Conference on Sunday (which was great), I went to the cemetery to spend some time there. My friends had a little boy who died a couple months ago, so I first went to see his grave. It is just a few rows away from Jackson's...this little boy's name is Marley and he was such a cute boy. I don't know if any of his family will read this, but I think about them often and hope that they can feel everyone's prayers for them.I then went to Jackson's grave & saw his little pumpkin still sitting there, which made me happy. :) I laid on the grass in front of his headstone and wrote down some goals for myself and notes from conference. Then I just read a book and relaxed there. Linc & his brother drove up a little later and probably thought I looked quite funny sprawled out on the grass like that. I loved it though. It's so relaxing and therapeutic for me to visit there. I'm sure this won't be the last time I go there just to read a book and to think.

Taking Care of Me

After dinner on Sunday I had to go upstairs to rest for a little while because I was in quite a bit of pain. I fell asleep and the kids came upstairs and started playing in the bedroom where I was at. I woke up to Jarod telling the kids to be quiet because I was resting. He then laid behind me (thinking I was still asleep) and started stroking my hair. How sweet is that?! Later on, Claire came in and I told her she needed to go back downstairs, because I was trying to sleep. I thought she had left, but her mom found her sitting in the corner of the bedroom reading a book. She was keeping watch over me and told her mom "Shhh!" because I was sleeping and she didn't want anyone bothering me. I'm so thankful for my nieces & nephews...they're the best. :)

Lincoln & the boys

I wanted to make sure to get some pics of Lincoln with his nephews before they left. These boys just love Lincoln & Linc is a HUGE fan of theirs! I have a feeling our future children will look quite a bit like these two boys, except with really curly hair...Linc had curly red hair when he was little. :)

Going-Away Party

The Willis gang came over to say goodbye to Kenny & Cleona & the boys on Sunday night. Linc & I played cards with some of the cousins & Jayten, and we all ate yummy caramel popcorn. It was fun to see everybody. We are really going to miss Kenny & Cleona...we feel really close to them. It sounds funny but Linc & Kenny really didn't like each other growing up. Now they love to be around each other & are great friends. I love seeing the similarities between them. They say certain things in the exact same way & have similar facial expressions when they talk & it just freaks me out. Does anyone else think they look alike? :) Cleona is one of the nicest people I know. She is so down-to-earth and easy to talk to. I love her so much. She married Kenny when Lincoln was on his mission. Linc said when he met her he felt like she had always been a part of their family. We're glad we were able to go to Snowflake to see them one last time before they move. We are going to miss them SO, SO much!!!

Halloween 2008

Lincoln had to work on Halloween night so I went to the ward Trunk or Treat with Daisy & Duke. :) I brought my new neighbor Jo & her daughter to join in the fun. Here's my last-minute thrown-together hippie costume. We found a little baby dress for Daisy & a raincoat for Duke. I wanted to get them really cool costumes, but with the way I have been feeling, this was the most I could do. :) Daisy & Duke were wiped out by the time we got home. I let them in the house & stood outside talking to Jo for a minute. This is what I found when I went inside.



I went to my cousin Kristin's house after that to see her cute twins. Kaimen & Danica looked ADORABLE in their costumes! I just wanted to pinch their cheeks...they were so cute. Danica was completely out the whole time. It was hilarious. I'm so glad that these babies are doing so well. Kristin had them VERY early so after lots of prayers they are doing great. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! P.S.- To those of you were sitting on the edge of your seats, waiting for Linc's Halloween pictures...you'll have to wait until next year. Sorry!

One Last Tag

I'll admit, I have gotten really sick of tags lately. I've seen the 4th folder/4th pic tag on some blogs & wasn't going to do it, until I saw that this was the 4th pic in my 4th folder. I couldn't resist! This is my dad right before we left on our San Francisco trip in 2006. This guy is hilarious. I just love my dad. He has ALWAYS been able to make me smile...he's such a goof! I guarantee I can look at this picture on a bad day & it will make me laugh.

Election 2008

I am so excited to be able to vote this year! I wasn't able to vote in the last presidential election. There was this whole issue with my name not being spelled right on my original birth certificate...if only Dad would have asked Mom how to spell my name before he filled it out at the hospital! This little issue has been one for quite awhile. Now I finally have a new birth certificate with the correct spelling & I am FINALLY a registered voter!!!
DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!! POLLS CLOSE AT 7PM!