Long-time Friends

A couple of weeks ago, we had some friends over...I have been friends with Mitchell & Marshall & Heather for 12 years. We all met at MCC in a musical theater workshop there. We've obviously been friends for a really long time, and have really fun memories together. Luckily our husbands aren't opposed to hanging out with these guys :) so we all try to get together when Mitchell is down from BYU. This time we had pizza (Papa Johns...the best!) and played Wii (thanks to Heather & Josh for bringing it) and we talked and took tons of pictures! Heather got a REALLY NICE new camera that she wanted to try out, so we were her models. As you can see from the pics, the puppies joined in the fun. :) Thanks for the great night guys!
I love this picture...it's not too cute of me, but Marshall's face in the background is the best!

He's single ladies....

The whole gang: Heather, Marshall, Mitchell, me, Lincoln & Josh

Mitchell was really getting into the game...

Here I am making my packing list for Utah. I'm bad at trying to do productive things while hanging out with people. Oops. :)

Complaining

All day I have had this pent-up negative energy inside of me & writing about it in my journal didn't seem good enough...so I am blogging about it instead. :) I know that Heavenly Father is very aware of my health problems (more aware than I even realize) and that this is His will. However, it doesn't mean that it is always easy to deal with! I am tired of having an insane sleeping schedule. Two nights this week I went to bed early and got over 12 hours of sleep. The other two nights I went to bed VERY late (6:30am one night....morning......whatever) and only got a few hours of sleep. Tonight is proving to be one of those "later" nights. My immune system is weak right now & my lack of sleep doesn't help & makes my pain harder to handle. Moving on...

I am tired of seeing Lincoln being affected by my trials. I hate that he has to make his own dinner most of the time, live in a cluttered house, not touch me sometimes because I'm hurting so much, and wonder what kind of day I'm having each day. I hate that he is financially responsible for taking care of our family when he is going to school full-time, that his love language is "acts of kindness" & basically all I can do is TELL him that I love him, and that he almost always has to drive when we go somewhere (even when he comes home from work having not slept & we drive straight to Snowflake) because I'm on painkillers. Some of these things sound so insignificant but they just get old so fast!

I guess that is it. That's all I really have to complain about and surprisingly I already feel better. I was afraid this post would be 20 paragraphs before I was through. :) Now, normally I would consider just deleting this before I even post it...but I'm not going to. It is important to me that I remember the hard times as well as the good. That way the good times are that much sweeter and I can see how far I've come & how much our situation has improved. I am SO glad that I have my surgery scheduled. I feel like I've pushed through my pain for so long (even though it's only been a month & a half since my acupuncture stopped working so well) & now that it is going to get better soon, I've run out of patience! I seem to do that quite often. The last leg of the race is always the very hardest for me. Well, thanks to those who read this. I really do appreciate all of the support that everyone gives me!

Definitely Meant To Be

Sorry for the insane amount of posts lately...but how could I NOT post this?! I found these pics on Heather's blog...they were taken randomly on the same night!

I am pretty sure that Duke is MEANT TO BE my dog. It isn't very often that your pet has your genetics. Ha ha, just kidding. As I said before, try not to feel bad about yourself. It's not YOUR fault that you can't pick your nose with your tongue...even if a puppy can do it!

Health Update

A few people have asked me to post a picture of my original dental xray...this is a REALLY bad copy but it's all I have. I had to take a pic of a black & white copy that the office gave me. :) On the x-ray machine it looks a little worse than this (because with the black & white copy it has white where there isn't necessarily as much)...but it gives you a general idea of what it looks like. As you can see, there isn't anything holding those teeth in my mouth, except for the gums in between the teeth. I am now going to the endodontist once a month (which is a nice change from twice a month) & my progress has stayed about the same. When I went in to see my endodontist last week, he asked if I have been sick this past month. I haven't, but my pain has been much worse than it was (before I had to go to the ER) and I haven't been getting much sleep (until this week). He told me my immune system is weak & my mouth is still infected. He even threw around the whole surgery idea, but wants to wait and see if things will improve with just having the medicine injected into the teeth, like we've been doing. Apparently if he does have to do surgery, he will have to do two more root canals & it would be semi-serious because so much of the bone is still missing...there isn't much to work with. So that is my LONG dental update...now I'll move on to the others.

I haven't had acupuncture for the past month, because my acupuncturist's life has been absolutely crazy with both of his parents dying within a couple months of each other. I feel so bad...I hate when someone has to go through so much at one time! I will be seeing him tomorrow, so hopefully that will help my pain somewhat. I have had one treatment since I went to the ER, which didn't help much, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm just afraid that my endometriosis has gotten to a point where the acupuncture can't help it nearly as much as it had been helping. We'll see though.

And finally, I have a surgery date...January 16th! I know it isn't before Christmas...I was really disappointed at first that they couldn't schedule me earlier than that, but it will be fine. At least I have a date to look forward to, and I am anticipating this month to go by fairly fast with it being Christmas and all. It worked out well because my surgery will be during Lincoln's break from school. He will hopefully be able to plan his work schedule so that he has a few days with me after surgery before he has to go back to work. So in that aspect, I guess I really lucked out! That's it for now...if anything changes, I will post! I feel like my life is kind of at a standstill until I go into surgery, but I am trying to stay positive!
P.S. I mentioned that I hit my head on my trip. I talked to my dr and she was thinking about sending me in to get my head scanned, but today my symptoms are almost completely gone...so I'm ok. :) Hooray for that! Oh and that "Greg and Nora" quip was from A Very Brady Christmas...a classic!

Lincoln's Thanksgiving

Linc sent me this picture from his phone on Thanksgiving with a "Happy Thanksgiving" message. I lucked out...he is so cute. He was able to go up to

the Hiatt family cabin in Pine on Wednesday & spent that night and the next day with his parents, cousins, aunts & uncles & grandparents. He had a great time. The puppies LOVED it up there. He felt bad bringing them home to our small condo & tiny porch. :)

Utah Trip November 2008

This year I spent Thanksgiving in Utah with my family & Lincoln stayed in Mesa to work. It was sad to be apart from each other, but we both had a really good time spending time with our families. I left on Wednesday morning to Provo with my family. I included all the details in my posts below...I wanted to remember everything. :) Some of the best memories that I didn't have pictures of was watching my dad laugh so hard he started coughing & wheezing while watching Nacho Libre, texting Lincoln pictures of my mom & Melissa with prego stomachs (after we ate a ton) announcing their pregnancies (I actually have pictures, but had to take an oath not to post them), & having Aaron fall asleep on my lap in sacrament meeting & watching him twitch. Ah, what memories! :)

Thanksgiving 2008

My sister Melissa's mission companion's family invited our entire family over for Thanksgiving! It was SO nice of them! I really wish I would have taken a picture of the food, because it all looked like it came straight out of a magazine...SO DELICIOUS!!! My favorite was the stuffing (which I'm not normally a big fan of) & the salad: greens with blackberries, strawberries, apples, candied walnuts, and homemade dressing. Their house looked like it belonged in a magazine too...the whole atmosphere was awesome.
This was Shawn & Melissa's first Thanksgiving since they've been home from their missions! This was the main reason that I went to Utah even though Linc had to stay in Mesa...I really wanted to spend time with my brother & sister! Aaron will be on his mission next Thanksgiving...so we all won't be back together for awhile.My siblings enjoying the yummy food...nice face Shawn!

Rock Band

After dinner we played Rock Band & Mom & Dad even tried it! Mom was a pro at the guitar!
Megan & Shawn hanging out...
I've always wanted to be a rock star!!! :)

Of course a lot of our trip consisted of a ton of food...not just on Thanksgiving. Here is Meg with her favorite!
These onion rings were huge! I have made a commitment to myself to not eat dessert until Christmas...wish me luck!!!

Boondocks

Friday night Megan & I met my friend Rebeca & her kids at a place called Boondocks. The drive there was interesting. I hit either a really big tree branch or a small tree in the middle of the highway. (Of course I didn't notice that nobody was in that lane & couldn't figure out why there was a cop car sitting there until it was too late!) Anyway, we made it to Boondocks unharmed. :) This place has go-karts, bumper boats, miniature golf, arcade games, etc. We ate pizza and rode the go-karts. My hands have NEVER been so cold! It felt like needles were stuck all over them...ok, I know that is a little dramatic, but it was SO cold outside & driving into the wind like that made them really hurt! I guess that's why sane people wear gloves in Utah!We spent most of our time there playing arcade games. I normally don't enjoy that very much, but we had a lot of fun! Meg was a natural at the jump rope game...when the light goes under your feet you are supposed to jump over it. I was out on my 2nd jump. It looks like I need to practice my jump roping skills... My favorite game was this roller coaster simulator...our seats were shaking so much that Meg & I were just laughing our heads off.For some reason I didn't really understand the concept of "Whack A Mole". I thought I was only supposed to hit the red mole because it was coming out the furthest & the most often. I finally realized at the very end that I needed to hit all of them. Meg was a champ...she was basically better than me at all of the games. I was quite jealous. :)
I've kind of prided myself on being good at ski ball...until Rebeca's 8-year-old son beat me every time. :) I guess I can't be exceptional at EVERYTHING right?! :)
I cannot say enough good things about my friend Rebeca. I wish that everyone could have a friend like her! She is an AMAZING person. She inspires me, helps me, supports me, makes me laugh so hard and is always there for me. THANK YOU REBECA! Some days I honestly don't know what I would do without her. If only she didn't live so far away!!!

Visting Relatives

On Saturday afternoon we were able to visit my grandpa's brother Bill & his wife Barbara. They are so sweet & fun to visit with. Uncle Bill really reminds me of my grandpa, who died 13 years ago, when I was 12. I felt my grandpa's spirit when we were visiting, and I was grateful to Uncle Bill for helping me remember my grandpa & how much I love and miss him.

Gardner Village

Late Saturday afternoon, we met my sister-in-law Wendy & her family at a place called Gardner Village. It was SO good to see them...I have missed them so much! I hadn't seen them since this past summer, so it was great to catch up with them. I really missed my nieces & nephews...they have really grown up since I saw them last!
We had printed a scavenger hunt off the Internet for the kids to do...we looked for elves doing different things & wrote where we found them. Then we took the sheet in to the candy shop for a treat.

It was fun to see all of the different elves & the little shops that they had there. It is a really cute place.
I think my favorite place was the candy shop where they had FREE FUDGE SAMPLES! I'm sure most people know this about me already, but I have a HUGE sweet tooth. This was probably the best fudge I've ever tasted. The candy cane fudge was my favorite...so creamy & delicious!!! My mom bought a bunch of it...I was pretty excited. :)
I also found a metal Yoda lunch box there for Linc that I filled with candy. Ha ha, he seemed to like it when I gave it to him when I got home. Anything Star Wars....yes I know, I married a nerd. Just kidding Lincoln!Shawn's girlfriend Ashley met us there...she had been out of town all weekend. It was fun spending time with her!On the way back to the car Aaron thought it was funny to pick up Melissa & Mom & jump & twirl around while holding them in the air. I about died laughing....it was hilarious.

Chinese Food

We met my grandma's sister & her husband for dinner at a YUMMY Chinese restaurant. I ordered shrimp with lobster sauce...it was amazing. I had a lot of fun talking & catching up with Aunt NeeNee & Uncle Dick. I like the way that Aunt NeeNee has taken time out for herself throughout her life & found things that she enjoys doing, while still making her family a priority. I love the way that Uncle Dick treats her...he is such a nice man & they are such a cute couple!
That night we went back to Shawn's apartment in Provo & watched Bourne Identity. I pigged out on fudge & got a stomachache. :) I ended up hitting the back of my head on the coffee table & have been dizzy, nauseous, & have had a really bad headache since then, so I am a little worried about that. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to get a refill on my meds, so I'll have to mention that to her to make sure that I'm ok.

We went to singles ward the next morning (which felt so funny) and then left for home. I was able to drive back with my dad most of the way & we talked the whole time. I have always really enjoyed talking with my dad & hearing his perspective on things. I love him. We made it home & I was SO excited to see Linc & the puppies! I really missed them. Thanks Mom & Dad for such a great trip!