Eliza Brock

Relay Season is Here!

2010-04-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

This year I am starting a mini blog about relay to talk about all the different reasons I participate and support my local relay for life benefiting American Cancer Society.

Stop on by and follow my mini blog at www.whyirelayforlife.blogspot.com

The Oh-So-Fun Easter Pictures

2010-04-07T22:19:00.000-07:00

Part of Easter for my kids is the excitement of their 'Easter Outfits'. Okay, I retract that statement. That is just purely my excitement as a mother wanting to dress her precious, cute kids up in matching outfits and torment them into taking multiple pictures....which of course they hate.

This year on Easter Sunday my church had General Conference. For General Conference we get to listen to the general authorities of our church speak and it is broadcast on TV so we did not attend regular church meetings on Easter. So we all wore our Easter outfits the Sunday before while we were in Sacramento visiting my sister. My sister's church building is on the same property as the Sacramento Temple and we were excited to take some lovely pictures of the kids on the temple property. After church all 9 of us(the kids and I and Amy's family)headed over to the temple grounds. After telling the kids 192,877,487, 897 times not to run I saw Alex out of the corner of my eye, trip and smack her head hard on the concrete. Let the fun begin. Poor little girl smacked it hard, too. After some kisses and hugs I thought we might be back on track. At least Olivia was ready for the photo session.

Okay, no lets try and add in the other two. Here's where the fun gets more fun.

Here is where Olivia sees a bee and then starts crying while Alex is still trying to find it and Cody thinks it is too bright.

Here is where both girls are mad because I making them sit 7.2 feet away from a bee minding his own business. Apparently it is still too sunny for Cody even thought it is overcast and they are facing away from the sun.

Here is Olivia still mad and now I am trying to talk Cody into putting his hands in his lap and actually opening his eyes.

Okay. Cody, can you please just smile and look at the camera at least, even if you can't stop messing with the tie? Olivia, maybe a little smile and forget about the bee? Alex, mom understands you just bonked your head, your a trooper sista! ....Please can mom just get one decent picture?

Whatever, forget it. Let's just add mom in and get a group shot.

Maybe everyone could open their eyes? Cody, hands in the lap man.

I guess this is as good as we get.... But aren't those outfits cute?

The fun just continued on the way to the car when Alex let me know she needed a Kleenex. Of course I just had used the last Kleenex cleaning the tears up from the head trauma that happened 5 min earlier. I tried to just start walking to the car to get one from there when she turned to me with her mouth closed as a stream of snot was running into her mouth. Next thing I know she was in a full on melt down, without noise of course, as her mouth was closed to prevent the snot running into it. Arms flailing, screaming without opening her mouth, jumping around. The whole 9. The car was far enough away I couldn't leave her there and come back so when I tried to pick her up she ran away from me and got down on her hands and knees and started spitting on the sidewalk. What's a mom to do but throw her hands up in the air and have a good laugh. Here's to better pictures next year!

Someone misses Daddy

2010-03-28T21:32:00.001-07:00

The blog has been really neglected as of late. Thanks for the request to update the blog Mel!

For spring break I took the kids to Sacramento to visit my sister Amy and her family. She is expecting twins in June and won't be making her annual trip home to CO to visit this year so we went to her. Jon did not make the trip with us. He had his boys trip to Moab this last weekend and couldn't get the entire week off of work. All of the kids have missed him. Olivia had a huge break down when he left on Wednesday. She decided that she wanted to bring her daddy/daughter dance picture with her on our trip. This is how I found her asleep last night.

Good night sweet girl, your daddy misses you too.

The Quackin' Code-man

2010-01-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

So I need your help...yes you! So read on and help a woman out.

Here he is. Cody. The Code-man. The Code-miester. Sportin' the $3 hoodie I found on clearance at Target. Who doesn't love a good deal?

This is how he rolls...

Although... I did have to drop the bomb on him his ride doesn't have four wheel drive.  He was a bit aggravated when he had to get out and push the thing across the snow packed street.  Maybe we need to pimp his ride?

I know you can tell by these pictures that this kid is no momma's boy.  He is one tough cookie. Check out those guns!  He is already in the 10th percentile for his age, I mean does it get any better?  He strikes fear through the hearts of all the bigger kids in his class...because EVERYONE (including his sister) is bigger than him in his class.  That's my boy.

Okay just kidding, he is not a toughie, but man is he a cutie.

Ok so back to the story that poses the question I need answered...

A few weeks ago we were all sitting down to dinner as a family when Cody announces he needs to go to the bathroom.  Of course the kids always have to go to the bathroom when they sit down to the table.  Don't ask me why, it just seems to be the norm in our home.  Since it is the middle of the winter and the sun goes down around 5pm it was really dark in the house and Cody runs into my room slamming the door behind him and then we hear him slamming the bathroom door shortly after. 
While the rest of us are enjoying our spaghetti in as close to silence as you can get with kids at the table we hear the "Quack, quack....quack, quack, quack."  Coming from the bathroom.  As we are all looking around the table at each other, we all begin giggling.  We all realize that Cody is in the bathroom.  Alone.  For some reason the kid is quacking.  hmmmm... Ok, stranger things have happened but it was funny.  As we continue eating we continue to hear the quacking coming from Cody in the bathroom sporadically through the next 5 minutes.  Of course this leaves the 4 of us at the table going from giggling to laughing out loud.  If you have ever heard either of my girls laugh it is just contagious so that leads to even louder laughing.
Shortly Cody comes whirling out of my room slamming the door behind him with wide eyes.  He stops by the door staring at all of us who are now silent wondering what is going on.  As he stands there we all erupt into laughter again and I could see the embarrassment and hurt on his face.  Of course I rush over to him when he bursts out into tears.  After awhile I finally coax the story out of him.
That week at school the kids went to library where the librarian read aloud a children's book.  Piecing together the story from my two 5 year olds, it was about a little boy who was afraid of monsters.  The boy had pictures of ducks or birds hung in his house and his dad had told him that monsters are afraid of ducks so if you quack it will scare away the monsters. 
Since Cody was in the dark room and then in the bathroom alone, he was petrified.  He thought the monsters were going to get him and was quacking to scare them away.  Poor kid, we were all laughing at him.  Another gold star for me in my parenting book.  (That thing is filling up quick)
After hearing the story I thought it would be nice to go and get this book and maybe write this story in it for him to keep for later.  I wrote to the school librarian but she still cannot find or remember this book. 

So here is where your assistance comes in.  Does anyone know the name of this book or does it sound familiar to anyone? 
 
I WANT IT! 

p.s.  He still is doing this when he goes down to the basement alone or is in the dark.  I will hear this quacking on the other side of the house at random times.  Oh yeah.  That's my boy, and that's how he rolls.

Nothin but love for ya Code-man!

Christmas break

2010-01-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

Jon had this last week off and kept very busy at home. Back in October Jon surprised me and painted the kitchen one day when I was with Olivia at a cheer competition. We have been wanting to paint and add color to the house for awhile but couldn't come up with colors we wanted. Here is what we ended up with after that day.

A rust orange in the center and yellow around the kitchen and dining room. The colors did look good together in the magazine he had seen them in but neither of us really liked them after they were on our walls. A few weeks ago I had been at my sister's baby shower and the hostess had her home painted in a maroon and an olive color that I loved. She gave me the color numbers and Jon spent all day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday painting the entire upstairs. He painted the tan color we have on the walls downstairs on the other walls and the ceiling since we haven't painted those walls since we moved in. It was a ton of work but I love it now. Here is what we have now.

It was dark outside when I took these pictures so the room looks really dark now but it isn't as dramatic during the day. I had all sorts of red in the room before so it looks really empty. I have to go and get some new stuff to decorate the rooms now. This huge black vase is something new I picked up this weekend. I think it looks really cool. Jon did a great job, huh?

Especially considering that I got the flu on Monday and Olivia got it Monday night. It wiped both of us out for the entire first part of the week. Being sick at the same time as your kiddos is no fun. I am glad it didn't last any longer than a couple of days.

Jon and I had some friends over on New Year's Eve. We played Rock Band and Band Hero. The kids really love playing the game. They are total rock stars!! Here they are practicing the night before.

After a long week we decided to take the kids to Denver for the night on Friday with our friends Desi and Aislinn. We took the kids to see Alvin and The Chipmunks 2 which we both hated, but the kids loved. Then we went to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory. That was a fun atmosphere and the kids had a blast with the balloon artist that was there.

The kids all loved the trolley car in the middle of the restaurant and food was really good.

After dinner we walked down the 16th street mall back to our car and the enjoyed some of the Christmas lights that are still up in the city.The hotel we stayed in had a junior sized Olympic pool so the kids loved having a big area to swim and play in and were swimming until 10:30 at night. They had a blast. Thanks for the fun times Valdez family! I suppose it is now back to reality tomorrow and time for Jon and I to start back to work. The kids don't go back until Wednesday so then next couple of days will be busy for me with work and kiddos!

Christmas Time

2009-12-27T21:39:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas time. The music, the excitement, family, and the celebration of the birth of our Savior.

Truly the most wonderful time of the year....

We were able to celebrate with extended family for the last few weeks. Jon's uncle John and aunt Clara came up a few weekends ago and the kids were able to go to their hotel and swim during the evening, which they loved.

We had a fun family night on Monday. The kids helped us get some holiday treats ready for friends and neighbors. They are expert chocolate pretzel makers now. And look at these beauties! Yummy!

On Christmas Eve my Brother-in-law, Doug and nephew, Jack came over and went sledding with the kids and Jon on the four wheelers.  I love it when it snows enough to cover the streets and sled on the street.  Everyone had a blast! 

On Christmas Eve we spent the afternoon and evening with Jon's parents. The kids had picked some things out for Jon and I with grandma and grandpa Brock that we opened. They were all really excited to give us their presents. It was cute and Jon and I both made some awesome faces for those pictures.

The kids were excited about their toys from Grandma and Grandpa Brock.

Christmas day Olivia and Cody were up in our bedroom at 4:45am. I told them they had to go back to bed for at least 45 min and so they crawled into bed with Jon and I and finally went back to sleep until 6:30. Of course I didn't go back to sleep with Cody jabbing me in the side every 2 seconds. I couldn't believe they were up that early.

We went to my parent's house for the rest of the day to hang out. (If I could only get Cody to stop making the "picture" face)

We also were able to meet my new niece Brea Kate. What a cutie!

The short update

2009-12-27T18:55:00.001-08:00

Since my last post Olivia had her first, second and third cheer competition.

These are the girls "facials" that they are supposed to do during their routine.

We celebrated Halloween.

The Brock's and Valdez's trick or treating!

Nice banana's boys!

Jon and I surprised my sister Amy for her birthday and flew out to spend a long weekend with them in CA.

Of course we got to see Wicked while in San Fran...and it was awesome!

Had Thanksgiving.

(when someone apparently stole my camera to capture this lovely self portrait. Ha! Nice one Chris!)

Olivia in her Cheer outfit with her BFF

2009-10-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

Haylee and Olivia do the cheer team together and Haylee's mom (Nikki) and I wanted to take some pictures of them with their uniforms on. Here are the pictures we took at the sculpture park. I think they turned out great, but I wish the sun hadn't been so bright.

Cheering with the Loveland High Cheerleaders

2009-10-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Alex and Olivia participated in a cheer clinic with the Loveland High school cheerleaders and was able to cheer with them at the game. They had a blast! Check 'em out.

They were a bit chilly.

Man they were excited. It was awesome to see their little faces.

Pink-tober

2009-10-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

Every October my support group Hope Lives! in Fort Collins holds their annual gala to raise funds to support women battling breast cancer. This is the event that I had the opportunity to model in 2 years ago. It was an amazing experience. This year 3 of my friends who are fellow survivors were models and Jon and I won tickets to attend. It was a great evening. I was also able to see several of the woman that I went through chemo with or who I have met at support meetings through the last few years.

Here is myself, Dana, Debbie and Sandra....

Debbie I was connected with through Hope Lives because we were doing the same chemotherapy. She is one of a kind. I love her. She is a great person, she makes me laugh, and I will never forget her because of the awful times that we went through together. And...just because she flat out rocks. What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger, right woman?

Debbie and Dana were both in treatment with me. Dana was the honorary chair at relay for life last year and gave an amazing speech that moved me to tears and she has amazing faith.

Here is myself, Shari, Jen and Dana.

Shari was diagnosed 6 months after me and I met her because Olivia and her youngest were in the same preschool. Olivia now cheers for the gym she owns and I love being able to see her on such a regular basis.

I met Jen at work. She and I worked together for a few years before I was diagnosed. She was diagnosed when her youngest daughter was only 9 months. Jen was the first "survivor" I really knew. She was there for e to cry to when I was so overwhelmed with fear of the unknown, to take me to my first support group meeting, to answer my questions and encourage me through the whole process. I am truly blessed to have her in my life and was lucky to have someone to talk to so early on in my diagnosis that had been through the same experience. Check out that passionate kiss her hubby laid on her in front of everyone. I love it!!

My friend Lanie that also went through treatment with me was also part of the evening. She gave an inspiring speech about her cancer experience. She is a 2 time cancer survivor. Diagnosed at 26 and 32 I believe. She is someone that I have looked up to since I met her. Her mother would come to treatment with her and they would both be laughing and having a great time in the dreary treatment room. It was contagious and I was drawn to her. She was always so happy and upbeat. Always looking for the good in every situation and always willing to do whatever she could to help and support her friends.

Daddy Daughter Dance

2009-10-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night Olivia's gym had a daddy daughter dance. Jon took Olivia and I was there to help out. They hung out with Olivia's BFF Haylee and her dad Brad.

Jon and Olivia did lots of dancing.

And lots of lifts.

And then danced to butterfly kisses while I teared up.

And then broke it down some more.

They had a blast!

To Whom it May Concern....

2009-10-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

In trying to communicate the frustrations of my week I thought I would just write the concerned parties a letter for their urgent review.

letter #1

Dear King Soopers,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for having the steepest, narrowest stairs leading up to your restroom facility in the history of the world. Every time I traverse this stairway I hold tight to the railing and hope not to fall to certain death.
After using your facilities with my kindergartners this past Monday I did the only motherly thing I could do and cautioned my babies to be careful and go slowly down. With one on each side of me they each grabbed hold to their salvation and clung on for dear life to the railing leaving me walking between them. Once again I warned them to slow down and we all forged ahead. About half way down I misjudged the width of the stair and slipped on the edge sending my arms flailing and my body careening out of control down the rest of the death trap. Somewhere along the way I hit my calf and twisted my ankle. When my limbs finally reached solid ground I was on all fours looking around with wide eyes to see who had witnessed my unfortunate blunder. Nobody was in sight, thank goodness, except my kids. One of which politely reminded me that I should slow down because these stairs are steep.
After picking myself up off of your floor we continued with our always delightful grocery trips filled with free cookies, running away from mommy, screaming, crying, arguing, whining etc. Three days later I still have a charming and painful reminder of the occurrence every time I put pressure on my right ankle and calf. As a loyal customer of your establishment I have been shopping at this store since I was a youngster and would appreciate you completely demolishing this staircase and rebuilding it the acceptable way like the rest of world's staircases.

Optimistically yours,

Eliza

letter #2

Dear HOA,

I wanted to thank you for being the worst HOA in the history of Loveland, CO. I supremely enjoyed you great attention to detail when building our community when it was new 5 years ago. Specifically I would like to acknowledge the following:

Planting trees while still in their planters and then having half of them die the following spring and then charging us to replace them.
Telling us you would plant sod in the community park and then planting seed so my children cannot run through the big grassy area without inevitable tripping every few feet in the big "potholes" left by the grass not completely filling in.....still, even after 5 years.
Raising our quarterly rates by vote since the apartments in our community get more votes then the actual home owners.
Never emptying the trash in the park between October and March
Sending us letters when the camper is in front of our house for more than 24 hours, yet doing nothing about the multiple renters in our neighborhood that keep boats and campers in their driveways and in front of their homes year round.
Slowing pushing community property maintenance off on us the home owner.
Suing the property developer and costing the HOA and enormous amount of legal fees
Raising our quarterly rates...again

I will have you know that I love my home, now that the basement is finished, but would sell it tomorrow if my property value wasn't in the crapper as a result of my dissatisfaction with you.

Today I completely enjoyed spending close to $100 that I don't have to paint your dadgum fence so I am in compliance with your moronic bylaws. Even though more than half of the home owners in the 'hood haven't completed this task either, I really treasure the harassing 'reminder' letter about the appearance of our neighborhood. I thought I was just following your excellent example.

I was lucky to have the missionaries from my church offer to come over and help me today so I could get this done before it snowed tomorrow. They have to perform 4 hours of service a week and to my benefit they had not completed their service hours this week. They wanted me to pass along a thank you to you for keeping our neighborhood a safe place. A police officer stopped by to make sure that these "men" were supposed to be on my property. Apparently 2 dudes jumping over the back fence seemed very suspicious. Thanks also to Loveland PD.

After spending some of the morning and the entire afternoon submitting to my duty as a homeowner in this community, I feel like I need to spend the next 48 hours on the couch. Every muscle in my body, even the ones I never knew I had, are throbbing. My body might just spontaneously explode at any moment. I scarcely have the energy to type this letter to you.

On that note, I will continue to hope that you might some day pull it together. More than likely though as soon as my property value is not sitting at the bottom of the ocean I will be able to give you the finger and get the heck outta dodge.

Sore and bitterly yours,

Eliza

The weekend

2009-10-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

On Friday Olivia received an award at her school assembly for being a great independent reader. She was so excited, and I was excited for her!!

I wasn't able to get a great picture of her because I was so far away but took some snap shots of her with her award at home later that day.

Last week I almost had a panic attack when talking to Alex. For those of you that don't know Alex, she is a talker. She will talk you head off with the most random questions. She reminds me of this kid in Home Alone, Mitch, the neighbor. Remember this part?

Mitch Murphy: Hi, I'm Mitch Murphy. I live across the street. You guys going out of town? We're going to Orlando, Florida. Well, actually, first we're going to Missouri to pick up my grandma. Did you know the McCallisters are going to France? Do you know if it's cold there? Do these vans get good gas mileage?

Airport Driver: Gee, kid, I don't know. Hit the road.

Mitch Murphy: [about the taxi-van] How fast does this thing go? Does it have automatic transmission? Does it have four-wheel drive?

Airport Driver: Look, I told you before, kid. Don't bother me. Now beat it.

Well that's my girl. Not satisfied with a one word answer and doesn't back down until she gets what she's looking for. Miss Alex has always been curious about my mastectomy scar on my chest. Asking questions about how I got it and where it came from. I have always tried to explain things to her in a way she could understand but not freak her out. So a few nights ago I was making dinner and....

Alex: How's the cut on your chest today mom?

Me: Fine honey, it doesn't hurt.

Alex: But that's from cancer. Right mom?

Me: Yeah it is.

Alex: I hope that I don't get cancer because that hurts, huh?

Me: Not anymore, I hope you don't get cancer either.

Alex: Yeah, because people die when they get cancer don't they?

Me: Sometimes people do, but I was lucky.

Alex: But kids can't get cancer, can they?

Me: Uh.... (obviously I had not prepared myself for the conversation veering off the road in this direction) Well....some kids do get cancer honey, but not breast cancer like mommy.

Alex: Kids get cancer?!? (um, she hadn't thought she'd get this answer either) Kids die from cancer? Will I get cancer?

Me: Uh.... Well.....(here's where I am panicking. I didn't want to lie to her but didn't really want to divulge the horrible truth of the matter to my 5 year old) Well.....Honey! Can you help Alex with her question.

(enter Jon aka the hero)

Jon: Well Alex some kids do get cancer and some kids do die from cancer, but you won't get cancer honey.

And that was that, she actually dropped it. I couldn't believe it. Maybe she saw the crazy, freaked out face I was wearing. The reality is that people, even kids, do get cancer and do die from it. This conversation has followed me through the last few days and I hope she doesn't revisit this subject for a long while. I don't want to have to tell my children the horrible reality of this disease. I am positive that I will continue to try and raise money and advocate for cancer awareness forever.

Saturday I was given the opportunity to participate in an outdoor market and run a raffle for my relay for life team. It is always good to fund raise throughout the year. It turned out to be a long day with being there early and not getting home until after 7pm. I had also signed up to do race for the cure on Sunday but didn't end up doing the race because I was too tired. I had some friends that went down though and said it was awesome. Thanks for thinking of me guys!

Sunday was a relaxing day. It was dreary outside and was great to stay indoors and spend time with the family all day. We enjoyed watching general conference on TV and hearing from the leaders in our church. The kids even enjoyed listening and filling out these fun activity sheets that the church puts out about the talks. We had Sunday dinner at my moms and the kids enjoyed playing "horsey" with my dad and my brother. Thanks for the entertainment guys!

Summer camping at the Dunes

2009-10-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is the first year we have actually camped at the dunes. We have gone there on the ATVs to ride for a bit but never stayed there. We went with our friends Sherri and Joe and their girls and also took along our "adopted" daughter Haylee. She lives down the street and is Olivia's best friend. As you can see all the kids were exhausted on the way down and they all passed out. Look how uncomfortable Cody looks....How can he sleep like that?

Here are some snapshots of our wheeling over the weekend.

On our first ride we found this really cool and really old house and took some fun pictures. Here we all are at the old house. I think I will make some black and white copies and frame them, whatcha think?

At the fire at night they introduced us not so crazy partiers to Sobe bombs. These are Sobe bottles with a hole drilled in the lid and full of gasoline. When you put them in the fire and they get hot enough a spout of fire shoots out the top for about 60 seconds and then the lid blows off the top creating a big mushroom cloud. Surprisingly there isn't a big boom at the end, just the cloud of smoke and fire. Probably not the safest thing in the world, so it was a good thing the kids were asleep in the camper for that part.

Thanks for the fun weekend Sherri and Joe!!

October

2009-10-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

Fall is definitely upon us. I woke up to a cool and crisp windy morning. The kids had school pictures today so we woke up early to get the girls hair nice and snazzy for the big event. It is only supposed to be in the 50s today and will stay really windy all day. I have to say, nothing says October like..

Leaves on my porch

Banana Bread

And my children turning into selling machines

As cute as these little ones are....nobody wants to buy this stuff. I hate turning into the parent that has to ask people to buy things to support her kids school. Because seriously folks, lets face it. It isn't like I send my elementary age kids around the 'hood to sell this expensive junk alone. Olivia came home and informed me that she is going to earn the candy machine prize. After examining the sheet, to earn the candy machine she needs to get 70 orders. She better expand her circle of friends to include someone with an income. It is fun that they get the kids excited to earn the money but who knows 70 people, let alone 70 people willing to drop $10 or $20 on something that they can get at Wal-Mart for $5?

I will have you know, that I saved my negative attitude for my husband and told her that she could sure try her hardest and hopefully she can at least get the small prize to have a party with her class. That girl is on a mission!

Random

2009-09-30T13:33:00.001-07:00

I just discovered this new soap from Bath and Body Works this last weekend. It is divine and is the essence of fall. I have it in my kitchen and think I am going to see if they have the candle because it is delicious. I cannot really describe it but it is a "spicy" scent and you should definitely check it out.

Cody just loves checking out his dad's ATV magazines. It cracks me up that he will just sit and study the pictures in the magazine.

Speaking of Cody he has had lots of funny things to say lately. We were at the dentist yesterday for both Alex and Cody. Cody ended up having a cavity on one of his back molars. I had told him earlier that kids that do not brush their teeth very well get cavities. When we were in the car on the way home he blurted out, "Mom, I probably have a cavity from when dad took me camping a few weeks ago and forgot my toothbrush. I didn't brush my teeth for the entire trip." (mind you the trip was 2 days)

Then the other night Jon had just walked in the door from work and dinner was just about ready. Of course he walks straight into the kitchen, opens up the fridge and pulls out something to eat as a "snack". When I started to give him a hard time about not eating before dinner he said something to the effect of the fat kid needs something to eat, NOW. Cody was walking by and said, "Dad your not fat, just big."

Hysterical!

Olivia The Cheerleader

2009-09-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

Olivia signed up to do cheerleading last spring. They have been involved in a few things around the community including relay for life and the local parades.

They will have 5 or 6 competitions between now and next march. She is really enjoying it!

Summer of the Broken Arms

2009-09-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

This summer we experienced our first broken bones. Alex fell off her scooter and broke her right arm. Technically "bent" up the bones close to the wrist. Jon was put on urgent care duty since he arrived home right when the accident happened. Alex was wearing flip flops when she was riding her scooter and Jon has always hated the kids wearing them because they trip over them. While at the urgent care he said that she went in to take her X Ray and then on the way out tripped over the flip flops, again. ugh. She went right back in and took another X Ray. Luckily, no more harm done and Dad continues to hate the flip flops. :-)

Here's miss Ali-cat in bed with her arm all wrapped up.

Alex kept her cast on for 5 weeks through the summer. The day she got her cast taken off, Cody was over playing at the park across the street and fell off of the monkey bars. I couldn't believe it!! What are the chances of that happening on the same day?! This time I was put on urgent care duty. We had gone to swimming lessons that morning and then gone swimming again for most of the afternoon, so the kids were exhausted. When we got to the urgent care they gave Cody's a few suckers.

The poor kid actually fell asleep while we were waiting to see the doctor he was so tired.

When we went to get his arm X Rayed his elbow was as big as his shoulder.

We aren't really sure why his elbow was so swollen because he didn't break anything up there. The doc said he probably just busied it and knocked it really well. He ended up breaking his radius down by his wrist. He has a cast up to his underarm for 2 weeks and then they put on a new cast that was only up to his elbow. When we went to get Cody's cast off a few weeks ago Cody's arm was peeling and brown from having that cast on his arm for so long. When we got back in the car to go home Cody was inspecting his arm and we had this conversation.

Cody: Mom?

Me: What's up Buddy?

Cody: (with concern in his voice) Do you think you could still love me if my arm stayed brown forever?

Me: Son, I would love you no matter what you looked like.

I was cracking up! What a character. Sometimes the things that come out of their mouths just floors me. The kids have officially been put on notice that nobody is allowed to break anymore bones.....ever. We will see how that works out.

My 3s anniversary

2009-09-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

So I had just noticed while doing my catch up posts today that it is my 3s anniversary....meaning that I have been beating breast cancer for 3 years, 3 weeks and 3 days. What a cool milestone.

Lots of great things come in 3s.

My kids

Sharpies

zingers

pink smiley tags

Cody's undies

Jon's favorite socks

Jon's undies

Ha! Just kidding these are not Jon's socks

...or undies. :-)

Cheers to 3!

Camping over my birthday

2009-09-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

If you know us, you know we love to go camping. We got in several trips over the summer as a family with friends, and Daisy of course.

All of the kiddos became more comfortable on their ATVs.

Dad even made them a jump.

And of course the kids always find their own forms of entertainment...

And since this was a special occasion, I was even serenaded.

My sister Amy visited for 3 weeks this summer

2009-09-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

My sister Amy came to visit with her kids this summer while her husband, Trevor, was in India for work. Trevor came out and stayed the last week they were here. While he was her we went to hermit park and stayed in cabins for the weekend. The kids all had a great time. Cody and Alex have started this fascination with the camera and taking picture of themselves. These are 2 of the many. They crack me up! Especially Cody....nice glamour shot baby!

There was a big mountain that we climbed up with the kids one afternoon. The kids couldn't get enough of the big rocks and climbing all over them. Here is Cody and I at the top and the group of us during the climb.

We also spent one morning at Rocky Mountain National park. We took the kids on a simple hike by some small falls. It was beautiful.

We also did lots of swimming and playing outside including spending a day at water world, going to the splash park and the pool.

As always, good times Amer. We love you and wish you were closer!!

Relay for Life in pictures June 2009

2009-09-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

The Summer MIA

2009-09-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

August 30th was the twin's 5th birthday. I can hardly believe that they are 5 already and in kindergarten. August 30th was also the 3rd anniversary of my cancer diagnosis. Also, cannot believe it was 3 years ago already. Where has the time gone? What happened to my babies? What happened to my summer? We have stayed busy all summer. So I'll take it from the top. The girls both had their ears pierced at the beginning of June. They were both really excited to do it. I put my emla cream on their ears hoping to numb them up a bit before the piercing. Here they are before had with cream and saran wrap on their ears all excited and looking "special".

Here's Olivia in the chair all ready to go.

And Alex.

And ta-da! Here they are, all pierced and ready to rock.

Jon has a friend that is on the Loveland Fire department. They were getting better acquainted with the area and stopped by the house with the truck. The kids were so excited. They were all able to sit in the truck and meet the fireman.

That was a fun day.

I'm tired....

2009-07-09T05:10:00.001-07:00

Today is buddy check 9 day. Do your self breast exam and remind those you love to do theirs. Early detection is key!

Once upon a time (at Christmas) I asked my husband to change the battery in our smoke alarm that is conveniently located at the top of the vaulted ceiling outside my bedroom and unreachable except by a very tall extension ladder. (which I don't own) This morning at 4am it started chirping. It is still chirping. Jon is out of town. Jon is in big trouble. The End.

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-06-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day we took the trailer up to our favorite spot by Wycolo, WY on the Colorado/Wyoming border. It is always fun spending time with good friends up in the mountains doing what we love; four wheeling and playing. The twins rode their own four wheelers around the camper about 100 times. They are still too little to reach the brake very well but had fun just around camp.

Olivia is still doing pretty well and enjoying every minute of being the driver.

Jon taught me, well more like showed me once, how to use the chain saw. According to Courtnee, "That thing owned me." I have to admit...kinda scary when Jon says, "Now make sure you don't do this, because you will cut your hand off." Oh, ok, is that all. Let's get the party started, I'm ready to get my learn on. Ha! Once was enough, thanks. Just in case I am ever out in the wilderness without my husband but toting along a chain saw. Then I will be set since I had my lesson. :-)

Of course Seth and Courtnee joined us. (we don't leave home without 'em) They are our camping peeps!

My friend Dave and his son Austin came up and rode their mini bikes with us for part of the weekend.

And we talked Sherri, Joe and her kids to come over and visit us from the sand dunes near Walden.

It was Daisy's first camping trip. I think she was chilly the whole weekend but we did our best to keep her warm.

We had a great weekend "at camping" as the kids would say. I wish we could go much more often! We are planning another trip over my birthday weekend of the 28th so we have fun times to look forward to again in a few weekends.

Olivia's Dance Recital

2009-06-15T20:50:00.001-07:00

Olivia has been taking a tap class all year and they did their recital in May. She was so cute. We weren't allowed to take videos so I don't have any to post on the blog but here are some pictures from afterwards. I especially love all that lipstick and blue eye shadow. Priceless!

Playing Catch up

2009-06-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

Since my computer has been out of commission since right after the last time I posted I haven't had pictures to update the blog. First though, buddy check 9 day day was missed so don't forget to do that self breast exam!

The twins went on a field trip to the farm in May with their preschool group and had a great time. Personally I thought it was pretty lame as far as farms go but they enjoyed it so I suppose that's what counts. :-) There is a really cool place called Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point in Utah by my sister that we have been to a few times that really puts the one here to shame so check it out next time you are around Salt Lake.

They also did their preschool graduation party. Cody was peeved at me because we made him where his church clothes so he only participated in half the festivites after I finally convinced him he was "totally missing out".

Here they are with their graduation certificates and their preschool teacher Mrs. Karen. Yeah they made it through the year!

We also went to help Grandma and Grandpa Mondy plant their garden. The kids LOVE doing this. Jon, the kids, and I all helped plant and it was a fun afternoon. Hopefully we will get to enjoy the delicious fruits of our labor in a few months.

My brother even found a snake that the kids were all excited about and they all took turns holding. Snakes, yuck!

Relay for Life efforts

2009-05-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

This will be my 3rd year participating in relay for life. This year instead of sending out the usual email from American Cancer Socity I wanted to remind all my family and friends why I choose to participate in the this event every year. To do that I wrote a poem and then put music and pictures to it. Here is the poem:

I relay for life. For my life, for your life and every life touched by cancer.

I relay for those first diagnosed,
Who know not what’s ahead, but are ready to fight.

I relay for the survivor learning of recurrence,
Who already knows what awaits, but is still ready to fight.

I relay for the mother watching her child suffer through chemo
And the child enduring the suffering.

I relay for the husband afraid to lose his wife
And the wife afraid of being taken from her family.

I relay to fight the cancer that tried, but failed, to take my life,
And to bring hope to those who are fighting.

I relay to celebrate being a survivor
And to honor those who have not survived.

I relay for those who have the determination and the will to fight,
But surrender because they could not succeed.

I relay because I do not know why I won my battle and others lost,
But I believe that what I am doing will help more people win.

I relay for the friends I met through treatment,
To honor fights won and fights lost.

I relay to help calm my fears,
Because at times I am still afraid.

I relay for life. For my life, for your life and every life touched by cancer.

Here is my creation:

I know times are tough right now, but even the minimum donation of $5 would be truly appreciated and you are even able to write it off on your taxes as a charitable contribution.

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09GW?px=3673300&pg=personal&fr_id=17835

Also if you would like them to light a luminaria at Relay for Life in honor or remembrance of someone you know that has battled with cancer you can follow this link to have them set one up for you. The luminarias are an amazing site to see lit up around the track during the night.

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09GW?sid=1014&type=fr_informational&pg=informational&fr_id=17835

Thank you so much to all of you for your continued support for the fight against cancer.

With Love,
Eliza

Visit to Utah

2009-05-10T19:12:00.000-07:00

Over last weekend I was able to travel out to Utah to attend my cousin, Camille's wedding. I drove out with my Mom, Dad, and sister Heather. My other sister Amy also met us out there and then we all stayed at Toni's house. Wow, all of us girls and NO kids. It was divine.

We had a great time hanging out, shopping and going to the wedding. Here are some pictures of the weekend.

Here is all of us the day before "the big day".

This is my sister and her cutie patootie son, Jack.
Camille and Jared after the wedding.

My sister's and I outside the temple.

My grandpa, Aunt Holly and my mom.

My hysterical cousin Eric and my grandpa.

My Aunt Holly and cousin LindseyBoy that was a fun weekend. Always good to get a little sista time!

My niece...

2009-04-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

My niece was born last week at around 26 weeks, so very premature. She has given us a few scares over the last week buy last night was bad. I was able to go down with my parents and brother-in-law to see her and her parents. Thankfully she is now stabilized!
Here is a video I made of the photos I took of her last night:

25 Random Things

2009-04-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

I did this on Facebook awhile ago but had a good time doing it so thought I re post it on my blog. If you do this leave me a comment, because it is a fun way to get to know more about your friends. Here is my list.

1. I am a total freak about not feeling well. Always paranoid that whatever is wrong with me must be because my cancer is coming back.
2. One of my biggest fears is my husband dying. He drives excessivly for work and does tons of dangerous stuff at work so I am always paranoid about it.
3. I admire people who speak their mind. I wish I was more outspoken then I am, it would probably save me a lot of inner frusterations in aftermaths of conversations.
4. I hate it when people feel like everything is a competion needing to have the bigger bader things or did that same thing as you only 100 times cooler. "Top this"
5. I never thought that I would be interested in the health care feild until I became a full time, professional paitent. I can't wait until I have the time/money to get through nursing school.
6. I loathe confrontation. Most times I find it easier to avoid then have an all out tongue lashing with someone unless I am super pissed or hurt.
7. I have always had trouble sleeping. I sit up at night, even when i am exhausted, thinking about anything and everything. It is like I can't turn off my brain. I got the best sleep when doing cancer treatment because I was perscribed Ambien...sweet sweet ambien where are you? :-)
8. I would love to live in CA or somewhere where it is warm....ok, hot, all the time. I become a recluse in the winter time.
9. One of my "yeah right" dreams is to be a songwriter. My dad just gave me a guitar and I am really looking forward to learning how to play it.
10. I love camping with my family. Everyone has the best time....as long as I am warm.
11. Love trail riding with the four wheelers. So fun!
12. I always knew my mom loved me, but realized just how much when she rearranged her existance to revolve around me during treatment. She was with me at every appointment, treatment, follow up, surgery, blood draw, procedure, etc. She made sure I was never alone at anything which I really appriciated after seeing all the patients that face those horrible times and hours upon hours of chemo all alone. Not only did she do this but was at my house several times a week cooking, cleaning, massaging or doing anything else I asked her to do. I will never forget her selfless acts of love during those times. Best. Mom. Ever.
13. I never thought that it would have been possible to love my husband and children more with each day that passes. I love being married to my best friend.
14. I loved cheerleading. (I am a dork) It was so much fun. I was on a professional team the year after I graduated high school. Good times.
15. I am grateful for all my life experiences, good and bad. I wouldn't be the person I am today without them.
16. My faith is the foundation of my life. I don't know where I would be without my testimony of a loving Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ.
17. I wish I was more confident in talking about my faith with others. I feel like people do that ".......oh, your mormom???" thing when they find out. Probably just my own insecurites.
18. Jon and I met at a country bar and love to country swing dance. I wish we could go more often.
19. In the last year I have recently found myself being really sad that we were done having kids. Even though we decided we were done after the twins and before I was diagnosed, something about "having" to be done because of that, really pisses me off.
20. I think I am a great listener. Most times I probably can't offer great advice but usually have a sacastic comment or provide humor to the situation.
21. Most of my favorite show are reality tv. The bachelor, survivor, amazing race...My husband thinks I am a nerd.
22. Who knew being a mom would be so hard. I pray for patience and to be a better parent every day.
23. I have never dieted or exercised regulary. I would really like to start a regular exercise routine.
24. I would love to be a better cook. Since my kids are so pickey we don't really experiment with much, just stick to the basics.
25. I cry when I laugh. I also cry about anything remotely sad on tv or in the movies or real life. Guess I am just sensitive.

Snow Day

2009-04-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we had a big blizzard here and they ended up cancelling school. Jon was able to take the kids sledding behind the four wheeler. They had a great time!

Here are some action shots:

This is where Daisy spent her "snow day". Gotta love the heater!

Spring Break Highlights

2009-04-15T19:54:00.001-07:00

For spring break the kids and I loaded in the car and drove to Utah to see my sister. Jon was not able to come at the last minute due to work and so my Dad drove out with us. We had a great time visiting. Jack and Cody helped grandpa fix some of Toni's chairs. I love Cody's face in this picture.

Olivia and Jack became fast friends while sharing whip cream.Toni has a Smith's grocery store pretty close to her house that became a daily activity for us due to these child size shopping carts....the greatest invention of all time! You mean I can grocery shop while my kids entertain themselves and I don't even have to push around my heavy groceries....the kids fight about who gets to do all the manual labor...love that!

Amy and her family came to Toni's house on Wednesday because Trevor had a BYU reunion to go to over the weekend. When they got there we found this cool park that the kids loved. I think it was called Discovery Park.Then Toni and I took this super terrific self portrait....those are always the coolest.

Then we turned the camera over to the 4 year old, Alex. What a photographer!

I like how this one's focus is on Toni's belly and my rack. Ha!

On Thursday we went down to Provo with Amy's family and hung out at BYU. We took the kids bowling. My kids have never been bowling and they had a great time.

On Friday we went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. The kids thought it was pretty cool and they had some interactive exhibits playing with sand and digging for fossils.

Yeah, we are about to get eaten by a shark!!

The lovely host family,talk about a change from the norm...one day it is just the three of you and the next day you have 3 extra adults and 6 extra kids. Yikes!

Thanks for having us Toni we loved being able to spend time with you guys and play. Amy, great to see you guys as always. I wish we all lived closer together.

Toni and Jack drove home with us and stayed with my parents through the next week. One day she was here we went to see my grandma who the kids call grandma great.

Buddy Check..late.

2009-03-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post about buddy check 9 this month. I hope everyone remembered to do their self breast exam! Remember to do yours and remind others as well. Love to all!

Confessions of the young mind...

2009-03-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

Cody

"Mom, I just love Daisy. She is pretty much really neat. I think she really loves me a lot"

"Mom Daisy loves the Jeep, but only when she is only Ali's lap."

I wonder what happened when she wasn't on Ali's lap while I was carting in the groceries....

Alex

Story preface...We came home today with some hand-me-downs from my friend Aislinn. Who doesn't love hand-me-downs? Alex and Cody promptly got them all out and tried them all on as soon as we stepped in the door. 10 minuits later Alex found me in th kitchen to declare....

"Aren't these shoes beautiful mom? Can I wear them when I get married with my spotted dress? I would look so pretty!"

Nevermind that they are 2 sizes too big, I guess. Her "spotted" dress she just got out of her hand-me-down stack from Olivia and it is blue with white polka dots. I guess she will be making a new fashion statement at her wedding.

Olivia

Story preface....So Olivia was obsessed at the beginning of the school year with playing on the monkey bars. She is pretty good at them but was always coming home with those sore hands and blisters on her palms. It looked like it hurt pretty bad, but she never really complained. On Friday we were getting ready for school and I saw her hands had those blisters on them again. I said, "Ouch honey, don't your hands hurt? Are you doing the monkey bars at school again?"

"My friend and I really like doing the monkey bars though mom. I told her it sometimes hurts my hands and she told me to just deal with it, so I just deal with it mom."

Huh? Just deal with it? This is not a phrase she has ever heard from me for sure. I am just picturing this drill sargent friend screaming at her, "Just deal with it you baby...get your butt on those monkey bars and like it. " Ha! I was rolling....just deal with it. I think I will try to tell her that next time she is whining about cleaning her room...we'll see how well she "deals with that."

I took the kids to this children's day they put on in downtown Loveland where they have special things going on at the liberary and museam and then had a street blocked off where they had fire trucks, buses, tractors and garbage trucks the kids could all crawl all over. In the middle of this street they had a face painter.....as in 1 face painter...1 lady.....100 kids wanting their faces painted. You do the math. The kids wanted to wait in that line to get painted and lost all interest in playing on the trucks. So we waited. and waited. more waiting. An hour and a half later we finally left with painted faces. Here was the spoils of our waiting. I couldn't believe how many kids were interested in this, and were also waiting so long for it. Which gives me a good idea. I think the ladies on my relay team need to take some face painting classes and put this to good work to make some moolah for relay. Whatcha say team?

Weekend Update

2009-03-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

The highlights from the weekend are exciting!

1. Olivia got off the bus with something missing. We have been waiting and waiting for this blasted tooth to give up already. It has been on the verge of falling out for over a week and just won't let go. I tried to explain there was a nice place in tooth fairy heaven for it but it wouldn't listen to reason. Then when picking up Olivia from the bus stop Friday afternoon she said she accidentally knocked it out of her mouth. Success!

2. Cody and Alex were actually captured getting along instead of fighting...delightful!
3. We bought a puppy! Introducing the newest addition to the Brock tribe.....Daisy.

The fighting took off right from the start on the car ride home with who got to hold the tiny pooch.

It continued right on through the entire weekend with each little one wanting their turn and then when they were told their time was up there was the immediate fit and questions of when it was their turn once again.

Ah, the house just wouldn't be the same without the joyful bliss of the children arguing.

Regardless, we have all enjoyed little miss Daisy immensely. She is a "min pin" (miniature pincher) and probably weighs about 3 pounds. She will be 8 to 10 pounds fully grown. I am in love! (Jon too, although he thinks she looks like a rat)

She is so tiny I was able to give her a bath in my bathroom sink.

She snuggled up between my legs this evening while bathing my monkeys.

2009-02-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

Reasons why I love the father of my offspring today....

It all started last night, or should I say this morning. Early morning...and no it's not what your thinking, no muffins. I couldn't sleep last night and the last time I looked at the clock it was 2:45am. things I thought about during the wee hours included

a. replacing the annoying bark like stuff all around my yard with rock so the kids can actually enjoy our lovely grass in the summer rather than have splinters through their little feeties.

b. possibly painting my kitchen

c. wishing I was rich

and so on and so forth

Riveting, isn't it?

Ok not really, I know. But I really am not sure why I have such issues sleeping. It's madness. Any-who...back to the original story...Not sleeping until the wee hours of morning for me so on to the reasons I love the man I married.

1. He wakes up with the kids and lets me sleep in until 10 in the am...wow that was late.

2. When offspring come running up the stairs begging to have their nails painted (even the male offspring) he is on the ball painting until their heart's content.

Here are the other 2 little Brocklies awaiting their turn to be all painted up...

And then voila! All 3 of the Brocklies are all painted and ready to rock the joint.

Then the eldest of the painted added some bling to her get up.

3. He did all the left over dishes from the night before.

4. He cleaned the entire basement. And all of this done without even asking.

What a catch 'eh? Well I think so at least.

Love you babe.

In other news we are going to my sister's house over spring break and the kids are so overcome with excitement that they wanted to make a paper chain to count down the days. Olivia completed hers with a few links telling why she is excited to visit the Nelson casa.

Yo Nelson's...Look out we will see you in 20 days.

Friday Fun

2009-02-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

Mr. Cody the super hero

Today we got out of the house this morning since we were pretty boring yesterday.

We ventured to the library where we left with 38 items in tow. Of course each of my children toted a bag and decided carfully upon each item they would "buy". Too cute.

For some reason Mr. Cody loves to line up his books on the floor like domino's arranging and rearranging them all to his hearts content. What a funny boy.

Cody also loves this spider man costume and would probably where it 24-7 if I allowed him to. What a funny guy. Such a little guy, yet so much to love. You make your momma happy little man.

Bedtime Stories...

2009-02-19T19:25:00.000-08:00

Every night my wonderful husband spends time putting the children to bed since I am with them the entire day. It is a special time for them to be together. Last night he started his story to Olivia....

Dad: Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Olivia and her prince Troy (from high school musical)

Olivia: heheheh, giggle giggle

and so the story went with daddy....

Then Dad says to Olivia now it is your turn.

Olivia: Once there was a princess named Eliza and she loved her prince Jon.

Hehehehehe

They went to bed and kissed and in the morning they got up and he made her muffins. (my kids love muffins for breakfast)

Then they kissed again and went to bed. When they woke up he made her more muffins.

heheheheehehhe hahahahhahah

No my child does not see us making out and how stinkin funny is that?

Tubing at Red Feather

2009-02-16T12:58:00.000-08:00

This weekend we took the kids up to Red Feather and went tubing. It was pretty cold, but we still had a great time.

Here are some fun snap shots.

If it were warmer we would have spent the entire afternoon up there. Here is a video of Jon and the kids going down the hill.

We will have to go again on a warmer day and stay the night. They advertise only $69 a night for a room with 4 bunks and a queen bed. Sounds like a fun mountain get away!

The Weekend and Buddy Check 9

2009-02-10T12:31:00.000-08:00

This weekend I had my girlfriend Holly that I have known since elementary school here for the weekend with her 4 kiddos. It was a full house but we had lots of fun. Saturday afternoon we were invited to get together with some of our old youth group friends that were also in town. It was fun to catch up with all of them and talk about what we are all up to. Here is a picture of the group.

The kids all had a great time together. Holly's oldest daughter Araya and her son Keenan are pretty close in age to my kids so it worked out nicely. Here are the girls before bed saying prayers and going to bed.

Here are the boys "camping out" in sleeping bags on Cody's bed. They thought that the camping out part was the exciting part. Here is Holly and the baby, Cohen.
It was nice to have the extra space to be able to have them all over comfortably and we had a great time. Olivia had her 100 day this last week and was all proud of these glasses they made at school. What a riot. I forgot to post yesterday, but it was buddy check 9 day. Make sure that you remember to do your monthly self breast exam.

Olivia the Cheerleader

2009-02-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

Last week Olivia and her friend Haylee did a cheer clinic with one of the local high schools. They learned (tried to learn) this dance and then they performed it at the basketball half time. They were so cute! Here they are doing the cheer.

Here they are before they performed.

Here is their dance.

One of my friends I went through treatment with, Shari, owns a cheer gym here in town and Olivia and Haylee are going to start going to a cheer class. In April they form teams and if Olivia enjoys the class we will put her on a cheer team. She enjoys her tap class now and is always talking about gymnastics so hopefully this will be a good combination of the two. The do a lot of stuff in the community such as parades and they were at relay for life and then they do a few competitions in the fall in the Denver area. I think she is really going to love it.

Twins Rodeo

2009-02-02T12:19:00.000-08:00

Ever feel too boring to update your blog? So not working, not going to school, and just home with the kids. It has been nice but haven't had too much going on. My sister Toni came to visit with her son Jack a few weeks ago. That was lots of fun. Since I wasn't working, we hung out every day. It was fun to be able to spend tons of time with her. I miss her and wish she lived closer. Alex asked me at the store today when I was going to have a baby in my tummy that we can play with and name Jack.......uh, you're outta luck sport! We will just have to enjoy little nieces and nephews dolly, I told her. In which she responded....we never get to have babies at our house. Ha! Poor kid. Here are some pictures from when she was here.

The twins had a rodeo at school last week that was really cute. Here they are before it started with their stick horses.

They did barrel racing and "turtle" roping rather than calf roping since she didn't have a calf. Here is Ali's greatest moments.....

Here are Cody's greatest moments.....

Here they are singing She'll be comin' round the mountain...

It was such a cute program. Thanks Mrs. Karen for organizing this. The kids are so cute and had such a blast!

A day late and a dollar short

2009-01-10T12:31:00.000-08:00

Well I am one day late to remind everyone about buddy check 9 day, yesterday. I hope that everyone remembers to do their monthly self breast exam and know your body so month to month you will spot any changes. Remember early detection is K-E-Y!

Being out of work already sucks, but I have still kept busy running the kids around and keeping up with the house. At least I feel like I have enough time to get those things done now. Hopefully my work will have enough work to bring me back at least for part of my hours by the end of the month, otherwise I will be looking for other work.

I have also kept busy this last week looking into nursing school more. I registered for school at the local community college but not sure that I will actually be taking a class this semester or not. Jon and I have talked a lot about which direction to go as far as just a 2 year nursing program or trying to get my BSN (bachelors of science in nursing) from UNC. I am still not sure what direction I will end up going since all the 2 year nursing schools have such a long wait list. Either way I have a long road ahead, but excited the more information I get about it.

Olivia is a girl scout this year and they did a kick off for the cookie sales last night at a local pool with all the girl scouts in town. She had a blast swimming with her friends. Hopefully she will enjoy selling cookies and if anyone is interested in buying some let me know and we will come by.

Last night I was laying in bed doing my usual stressing-out-about-everything-that-came-to-my-mind instead of sleeping. I just cannot turn my brain off, especially when I am stressed out about anything (not having a job). So laying in bed and I heard the door bell ring at 12:40am. WHAT?!? Of course I am freaking out waking up Jon and convincing him I just heard the door bell and to get out of bed to answer it. So we both got dressed and went to the door to find a policy officer. Great........what now?!? Apparently some punk drove down the street in our neighborhood and bashed in windows of all the cars in the street. Of course both of us were like, "which car", since we park both of the cars we have outside. The officer said the white pick up windshield. Jon immediately said "SWEET!" The officer laughed and said that is the first reaction like that I have had. Since we just forked out a bunch of money to fix my back window I was holding my breath that it wasn't that one again. Not that it was a good thing that it was the truck, but at least is was a work truck and we don't have to pay to get it fixed. The good thing is that a guy at the end of the street apparently heard all this happening and jumped in his car and chased the punk down so they arrested the jerk for it. It was kinda scary though getting pulled out of bed by the doorbell, it is never a good thing at 1 in the morning.

That's our excitement for today. Hopefully next week will be really boring. I can't handle anymore stress. My sister Toni is coming with her son Jack this next week. I am excited to be able to have some time to hang out and visit with her.

Life....

2009-01-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

I am settling down from the manic of the holiday season. I have been doing regular physical therapy visits about twice a week trying to keep the scar tissue from causing problems with the implant again and also keeping my arm and shoulder range of motion in good shape. I am sore pretty much all the time still which isn't horrible but a bit on the annoying side at this point. I am still having this issue with my ribs that has been persistent since before surgery. My physical therapist and surgeon are both now thinking the issue is radiation damage to the muscles or cartilage between my ribs on the right side. Basically my ribs are much closer together on that side so when I breathe deeply, sneeze or cough it is painful. I have been doing these deep breathing exercises from my physical therapist for the past week and although it doesn't seem a ton better it hasn't gotten any worse. I suppose it is just going to be stretching and exercising those muscles from here on out to keep them loose and that stupid, dumb radiation from damaging further that whole part of my body. sheesh already!
The other big news around here is that I was laid off today. That sucks, big time. I am not too sure yet what I am going to do about work. I am still wishing that I could get my school stuff going and am going to see what I might be able to work out with starting school and working somewhere else. I am still pretty much in shock since it just happened this morning. They are just not busy enough to keep everyone busy during the work day. My manager said that they will probably pick back up in a month or so, but until then I should just wait to hear from them that I can start working part time from home again. Hopefully something will work out. I am going to go sit on the couch and be depressed.

Christmas

2009-01-06T18:57:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas morning in Pictures. The kids had a great Christmas!

For lunch and the afternoon we went to my parent's house. My mom made beautiful quilts for all the kids beds. They turned out beautifully.

We had fun hanging out with my brothers Mason and Ethan and his family and my sister Heather and her kiddos.

Christmas Eve

2009-01-02T20:09:00.001-08:00

On Christmas eve I spent the morning with my mom helping her tie quilts. She made all her grand kids quilts or quillows (quilts that fold into pillows) for Christmas. I was supposed to help her tie them on Tuesday but had this accident with my car.

I was out doing the last of my Christmas shopping late on Monday night and got out to my car in the parking lot and loaded the lute in the back. When I closed the back door of the Excursion the back window (the biggest most expensive one in the car) just shattered on impact. WHAT!?!? I just stood there like an idiot wanting to burst out in tears and yell some swear words but since there was a crowd around me and glass all over me I didn't think a crazy, Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation, outburst was probably not the way to go. Of course it was only 9 degrees outside so after trying to wipe the glass off of me and the car I froze my butt off the whole way home. I called Jon before I even got out of the parking lot and was crying so hard I couldn't talk. He thought I was in a car accident and was asking me what happened over and over. I am such a dumb girl.... :-( So after spending 45 min outside the house at 11pm cleaning up the mess we both froze our butts off the rest of the night. I am pretty sure freezing to death would not be the fun way to go out.

I had a fun morning with my mom just visiting and tying the quilt. I wish my other sisters would have been there to hang out and visit. I really missed having all of us together for Christmas this year.

For the afternoon and evening we went over to Jon's parents house and celebrated with them.

We had ham and spent the time visiting and enjoying each other's company. Of course the presents are always a big hit with the kids.....

And the grown ups too....(I hope)

Jon and got Vern a pretty cool train book and his mom a digital picture calendar of the kiddos. Click Here if you want to check it out. It was a big hit with both grandmas and hopefully with John and Clara too!

We did all the fun stuff with the kids on Christmas eve, writing Santa a note and putting out snacks. It was fun to see how excited they were about it.

This is the first year we have done Christmas morning with just our kids and us. I took some pictures of the the "set up" before we went to bed.

I had seen these neat pin boards at the pottery barn kids over Thanksgiving and thought I could do a pretty good home-made one for the kids myself instead of selling my first born to buy one from PBK. I think they turned out really cute. I also bought these huge push pins and glued some cute buttons on the end of them. Not bad for someone who isn't very crafty! It will be nice for them to hang some of their school projects on them and look at them for awhile instead of just tossing them in the trash or looking at them on the counter for a few days after they bring them home.

Christmas with Uncle John and Aunt Clara

2009-01-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

Jon's Aunt and Uncle came down the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with us since they were going out of town for the holidays. They came up from Denver for the evening to visit, open presents and take us out for dinner. John's parents were also able to meet up with us and hang out. The kids were all excited about the goodies they brought.

We went to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner and the kids all sat on the saddle. Giddy Up!

Alex was either sick or super tired because she ended up laying down on my lap and sleeping the whole way through dinner. Miss O sat by her aunt and had a ball. They have always had a special connection and she loves spending time with Aunt Clara.

We had a great time and wish that we were able to see them more often.

Kids Christmas Programs

2009-01-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

So much for updating while recovering from surgery. I have been going 100 miles an hour over the holidays, like everyone else I am sure!

Olivia had her Christmas program the first part of December. The kids were so cute! I didn't really manage to get very many good pictures of Olivia but here she is trying to find us in the crowd and decide what the heck those bright lights are.

The first night that the kids slept in their new rooms we came down in the morning to find Olivia and Cody sleeping together. I had to snap a picture.

Cody and Alex also had a Christmas program with preschool. They did a nativity play at the beginning. Cody was the king and Alex was an angel. They all look like aliens because my red eye didn't work too well in the program.

Here they are during the singing portion of the program.And the group picture at the end.

They all did a great job and Jon and I loved watching them perform.

Moving Downstairs, finally!!

2008-12-16T10:16:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty busy weekend. Jon and I went out and picked up some new furniture for Olivia's new room downstairs. Since we have been married we have only bought one piece of new furniture, the kitchen table. Everything else we have either been given or we bought used, so it was fun picking out some new things. Here is what the twins old room looks like now that it is all cleaned out. (PS we are selling these captain's beds, if you're interested let me know)Alex moved into Olivia's old room upstairs. She got a new dresser and bed. She is super excited about the bed!Cody moved to one of the huge rooms downstairs.I love the closets in these rooms downstairs, so much room for storage. I am still trying to come up with some paint and decorations. I want to do some kind of camping theme, that's why there are the lanterns on top of the dresser and shelves.

Olivia also moved downstairs to the other room.She also has a big closet, so lots of room for storage.So here is the hallway and the bathroom door, we still have to put in the cabinets and glass for the shower so it isn't quite done yet.Here is the family room. That pole in the middle was the only one we couldn't hide in a wall. A little awkward but it works out okay I guess.

Here is the family room from the other side. We are also going to put cabinets along the back wall for a built in desk area for the computer stuff.

We are so happy to have the extra room to spread out. I love it. Things are almost back to normal. I was supposed to go back to work yesterday but we woke up to it being minus 15 outside and my diesel car doesn't really operate at that temperature so I was without transportation. I am feeling better every day and start physical therapy this afternoon. Hopefully my car will work today since it is above zero. It is a warm 12 degrees outside.

The drain is out....yee-haw!

2008-12-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

First and foremost I missed buddy check 9 day, so even though it isn't the 9th here is the monthly reminder to do your self breast exam. Don't let the busy holiday season keep you from taking those few minutes to do your check.
I have really enjoyed our basement being finished this week. I have spent more time down there this week on the comfy couch in front of a big TV than anywhere else. My parents have been an awesome help this week. My dad took the week off and had the twins or was here helping me with the twins everyday this week. What a blessing it is to have them close and be so helpful. Jon is still working days so that has also been great having him here at night to help out and to snuggle with in bed to keep my ice cold feet warm. :-) He is a great heater!
I had my MRI and blood work done yesterday. Turns out they didn't have my name on the schedule to do my MRI due to some oversight so I had to go back to my parents house after my blood draw to wait for my MRI time. My brother Mason ended up taking me to my appointment so my dad could pick up the twins from school. He even held my hand while they started the IV and took me to lunch afterwards. When he brought me home he came downstairs to see the basement and ended up staying and watching a movie with me. It was fun just hanging out with him since we don't hang very often. I can now officially say I am SO OVER getting poked with all the things I had going on the last week.
Today my mom came with me to Dr. Brewster's to get my drain pulled out. I have to say even after having to endure 5 drains over all my surgeries, the 6th one proves that you never get used to something like that. I go in knowing that it is going to hurt and hurt bad getting it yanked out but am still surprised by how much it actually does hurt. I cried. Then made my mom cry. Thank goodness that is over. I am so relieved to have that stupid, disgusting thing out! She also moved my implant all around to try and keep that pocket from scarring like it did before. I thought I was pushing it around pretty well but realized I wasn't pushing them hard enough when she showed me again where they should be going. Hopefully I can do it correctly and not have the same problem again this time. I sure don't want to have to do this again.

Still Alive.

2008-12-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

Well I made it through. My surgeon was ahead of schedule so when we checked in there was almost no waiting around which was nice to just get it over with. I woke up with out any side effects from anesthesia and feeling pretty good. Of course my mom and Jon were able to enjoy the stupid things that come out of your mouth for the first few hours of being on narcotics. Good times! I stayed Wednesday night in the surgery center and came home on Thursday afternoon. I have spent most of the last few days downstairs on our comfortable new sofa in front of the TV. It's been nice and relaxing. Other than the stupid, dumb surgical drain I have sticking out of me there isn't too much pain. I don't think I get it out until Thursday at my post op appointment. Drag. Hopefully the next few days go by quickly and I can put this behind me. Still have to do the displacement exercises where I move the implant around to keep the "capsule" open and the scar tissue from forming. I don't have to do the laying on the floor thing like I did last time though, so that is a plus.

So far everything looks great and more proportional. The scar tissue is all broken up and feels more like the other side. This week I have to go in for my 6 month blood tests and brain MRI on Wednesday. Hopefully that all goes well and I can't wait to get that over with.

Since Jon has been working days rather than nights the last few weeks he has done the bed time routine with the kids. They all read together and the kids love it. Here they are this evening. What a good daddy!

surgery day....already.

2008-12-02T21:08:00.000-08:00

Well tomorrow is the day. Feeling a little bit of mixed emotions. Finally it is here, but shoot. I want to get it over with but don't want to deal with it.
Our thanksgiving was good. My parents were out of town so my sister Heather and I got our families together to celebrate. Jon's parents also joined us for the meal. Even though there were 12 of us, it seemed small compared to our normal crowd. I cooked a turkey for the first time and it turned out to be pretty easy. I missed having my parents there even though I get to see them a lot because they are close to us. I got a small taste of what my out of town sisters miss out on not being here. (losers, you two should move home) Jon also got the nasty cold that has been going around our house. Hopefully it doesn't last as long for him as it has for me.
On Friday Jon and I took the kids and did some Christmas shopping. Since the basement is close to being done Jon got his Christmas present early and we bought the furniture and TV for the family room.
Sunday was my anniversary. Jon and I have been married for 7 years, amazing. I can't believe that we have been through all we have in the last 7 years. I am so lucky to be married to my best friend and can't imagine life without him. He does such a great job taking care of me and the kids. I love you babe.
Today the city inspector came to check out the basement. We were given the go ahead to use the 2 bedrooms and the family room. I have some of the kids stuff down here already but am really looking forward to now having the extra room to spread out. AWESOME!!! 2 years later we can finally use it!!! Jon has done an amazing job, with the help of lots of friends of course!
I am still coughing and developed a pain in my back around my rib cage that got worse over the weekend. Yesterday I went to the doctor since it was getting so bad I couldn't breathe without it hurting much the less cough....ouch. Thank goodness the chest x ray came back that it was not phenomena. The doc thinks I pulled a ligament or something. Ouch, whatever it is. He gave me some Tylenol with codeine but they don't seem to be helping a ton. I am really nervous for tomorrow. I would think that this would be easier the more "experience" you have but I am just as nervous as I was the first time I had surgery. I didn't really sleep much last night and have a feeling it will be the same tonight.
Olivia had her Christmas concert tonight. Those kids are so stinkin cute. I will upload pictures soon. I am sure I will have plenty of time sitting around over the next week. Off to try and sleep, hopefully I will be successful.

the weekend has come to an end...

2008-11-23T20:54:00.000-08:00

I am STILL coughing. It still sucks. I am not sure that it will ever go away and I am annoying all that have to be around me. Sorry to my husband, family, co workers and friends that have to sit next to me in the movies and at the comedy show!!

We found out this week that the listing agent on the house we wanted bought the house. The agent that had listed it before it went into foreclosure....bummer.

Friday night I had my girls night that I have been waiting months for. Twilight finally was released and we were all so excited to see it. A group of 12 of us went to eat at the Olive Garden and then went to see the 9:15 show. We had my friend Abbey make us all custom shirts that turned out really cute. Here are some shots of us from the night.

I have to say that I was SO disappointed by the movie representation of the book. I think that those that see the movie that haven't read the book will probably like the movie better than those of us that have read the book. Although I still love the story, the movie just was not as good as it could have been and I felt it showed that it was "low budget". I was more entertained by the company and the comments from those around me than the show itself. In all fun, I decided to make my own top ten list. Here are the top ten reasons I have heard or said as to why you shouldn't see Twilight.

1. Unless you're into guys who wear make-up, this film isn't for you. There was so much make up on Edward (and the other male vampires) that it was distracting from the rest of the goings-on.

2. The vampires were portrayed more as zombies with these terrible looks on their faces.... constantly. If you ever have trouble distinguishing who is a vampire and who is a human look for the constipated face....that's your vampire. Plus Jasper looks like a crack head retard every time he is shown in any scene.

3. Which brings us to the sparkling, a phenomenon that causes light-stricken vampires to suddenly look as if they’ve had a horrible accident involving a glitter truck and an angry mob armed with Bedazzlers. What may have seemed cool in the book looks like a human disco ball onscreen.

4. The acting was worse than.....okay I can't even think of anything horrible enough to compare it to, honestly. Kristen and Rob have zero on screen chemistry and just appear awkward the entire time. It was like watching a brother and sister pretending to like each other.

5. The special effects were circa-1985. I wouldn't even call anything a great special effect in the entire film. Although the ballet studio scene was OK, it wasn't anything to write home about.

6. When the "bad vampire" James is the best actor in the entire film, rather than the starring roles.....there might be a problem.

7. I am going to have to re read this book at least twice to erase all of the damage the movie had done. Now, who has the time to do that!

8. I don't think it's a very good sign when the parts in the book that were serious and critical to the story are making the audience watching the movie laugh because there really is no other response to the scene being so awkward....

9. In the last hospital scene with that tubing across Bella's face, did anyone else find it bizzarro that the tubing practically takes out her eyeballs instead of going across her cheeks? Where the heck are her ears that hold this thing? On top of her head??

10. 2 words......spider-monkey......huh?

In all seriousness I still LOVE the story and will surely see the movie again I was just really let down. Maybe my expectations were too high??

Jon took me out of town for our anniversary this last weekend too. It was nice to escape the kids for 2 days and have fun just hanging out. We went shopping and met up with our friends Brad and Patty. We didn't really find too much that were on the kids Christmas lists but we did end up buying a fake tree. I wanted to get one last year but by the time Christmas was over all the good ones weren't left to be on clearance. We found a really nice one at the Great Indoors. I love that store.

We went to Comedy Works on Saturday night which was funny but I thought it was kinda a rip off. We had to pay $20 for admission and then on top of that after we got in there found out they have a 2 item minimum that you have to order off the menu. When you don't drink that kinda sucks. The food was so over priced, plus we had just eaten dinner. Oh well, it was still fun. Thanks for taking me out honey, happy 7 years together!!

Still Coughing

2008-11-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

I guess today I starting to feel better but still pretty congested and can't stop coughing. This cold is putting up a good fight.

This weekend we took the kids to see High School Musical 3. I could have done without the oohhs and ahhs from the pre teen crowd that was there but the kids did seem to like it. I suppose we have to at least pretend to be interested in what they are interested in. Saturday Jon was able to go play with his buddy Seth on the four wheelers for the day. Saturday night Jon's mom made dinner and we had his parents, his brother, and his aunt and uncle over for dinner. It was nice to catch up with everyone. We took them over to this house that we have been keeping our eye on that is now bank owned and foreclosed. We are hoping to be able to score it for a great price but are still in the process of talking to the bank to see what they will take it for. It is always great to dream, right?

Yesterday Jon spoke in church and has been reminding me all week that he will never do it again. He thinks he is a horrible speaker, but he is actually pretty good. Everyone said he did awesome, he just gets super nervous. I don't think he slept for more than an hour on Saturday night because he was so nervous.

I talked to my sister that lives in the Sacaremento area yesterday and she was telling me that they had policemen outside her church building for the 2nd week in a row trying to protect people going to church from the rioters. Apparently the protesters and rioters in CA are taking action against the LDS church for their support of proposition 8. For those that haven't heard of this it is big news in CA that was on the ballot this last election to add to the CA constitution a ban against same sex marriage. Because the LDS church was one of the MANY groups that spoke out against protecting the marriage they are being targeted by those that opposed this ammendment. I can't believe the hate and that this has caused. It is very interesting the way this has played out. I know this is a heated issue, so that is all I am going to say about that :-)

Jon put the kids in a bubble bath last night and here are some funny pictures from that...

Also my girls were at my parents last weekend and came home knowing the Macarena. My sister had gone on spring break to Mazatlan when she was a senior and brought the CD back. My mom still has it. I had to catch this on video the last time we were over. It was hysterical. Watch the way Olivia shakes her hips. Funny.

The highlight of my week is going to be Friday. We are having a girls night out to see the movie Twilight. It comes out on Friday and we bough advanced movie tickets online last week. We are going to make T shirts and everything.....oh yeah, we are that Jr. High! I am so excited!!!

Surgery....Psych!

2008-11-12T15:46:00.001-08:00

After talking with Dr. Brewster Yesterday she said it was a no go. I am coughing so bad still and there is no way I want to be coming out of surgery hacking after being hacked into. ha! Meanwhile I am just trying to lay low and recover from this nasty cough. Thanks for every one's offers to help and prayers to feel better. I really appreciate it! We now have my surgery rescheduled for Wed Dec. 3rd.

Buddy Check 9

2008-11-09T18:48:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. Today is buddy check 9 day so don't forget to do you monthly self breast exams. Remember early detection is key!! You are never too young to start that self breast exams.

Also I have uploaded a bunch of photos from the last month or so to my picasa site so follow the link on the side bar and go check it out!

Catching up

2008-11-09T16:12:00.000-08:00

Well since our trip and my last blog post we have stayed busy. After I got home from the trip I was able to go and speak to a group of young adults down in Denver with the Ameri Corps. I signed up to volunteer with Komen and they asked me to come and speak here. It was a really neat experience to tell my story and just raise awareness about breast cancer and the realities of that diagnosis. I was able to bring my parents down with me and it was neat to be able to share that experience with them and just get to hang out with them for an evening. I am really looking forward to speaking again and raising awareness about the disease.

We have also passed Halloween. Fun for the kids. Olivia was a witch, Alex was Liohna (from Barbie and the Diamond Castle), and Cody was a Broncos player.

Ah, how cute! They were all able to dress up for school, the church party, and for trick-or-treating.

Work has been going well. Staying really busy trying to work 3 days a week and trading off watching kids with a girlfriend seems to be working well. I have been dreading my upcoming surgery this week. The kids have all had a little cough and the sniffles and it seemed to hit me head on this last week. I haven't been sleeping well because I have been stressed about having the surgery so I called the surgeon on Thursday and I am not allowed to take anything like tylenol or motrin because they are blood thinners and I can't take them for a week before my surgery. I was left with trying an over the counter sleep aide and a plain decongestant.

That got me through Thursday with the kids field trip to Centennial Village. This is a historical village in Greeley. The kids were able to walk around and see the old buildings but had a hard time keeping their hands to themselves. They weren't allowed to touch any of the artifacts. Unfortunately also there was a huge freezing wind storm in Greeley that day as well so everyone was dressed in their winter gear. Here are some pictures.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty horrible. My cold has gone from annoying to horrible. I haven't even left the house for the last 3 days. I have a horrible cough and bad chest congestion. I was able to get some ambien so I have been sleeping better which I think is helping but I still feel horrible. I also started my juicing again on Friday and just trying to do anything that will get me healthy in the next few days. Unfortunately with not being able to take anything pain reliever wise I have been super miserable. My whole body aches. Jon has been awesome at taking care of me and has even managed to finish up the trim in the basement. One more thing to check off the list. My mom has also been a big help with the kids, picking up my wheat grass, and bringing us dinner. I guess I am destined to be sick the week before I have surgery. I got a cold right before my last surgery as well. I will call the surgeon on Tuesday and see if I am still able to go in or not. Hopefully I can just get it over with since I have been a basket case for the last week and a half! Pray I can kick this cold in the next 36 hours!!

Vacation Day 5,6 & 7.....Disneyland

2008-11-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

We spent the last part of our vacation at Disneyland. We had great hotel recommendations from a friend who frequents Disneyland to stay at a Marriot basically across the street. It was great. We walked to the park and they even had a pizza hut inside the hotel and a McDonalds in the parking lot. We will definitely stay there if we go again!

My sister had read a book about how to navigate the park so she was our tour guide. Cody and Marnie were too small to ride most of the bigger rides so we did have to split up quite a bit. I was surprised at how well Olivia and Alex ended up liking the big roller coasters. The only one the would never do again was the tower of terror at CA adventure. There was a heat wave while we were there and was around 95 each day. It was nice we didn't have to wait in long lines most of the time. The characters weren't really out and about around the park so when we did see them it was pretty neat. Here is the girls with Alice in Wonderland.

Here is some pictures of my sister and I with the younger crowd when the big kids went to do space mountain.

The first night we were there we met up with my Uncle Dan and his family to eat at the Rain forest Cafe. The kids thought it was pretty neat. Here they are at dinner. Doesn't he look a lot like my dad?

Here is all of us outside the restaurant.

After we ate the guys took the big kids back to the park to play until they closed at 8. The next day we did most of the rides in Fantasyland that were geared toward the younger kids and ate at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant inside pirates of the Caribbean. Here we are waiting for our table.

The kids were all excited to ride the carousel. Look at these cousins with their hip crops, funny girls. Here is Alex on the carousel. Cutie.The highlight of our day and probably our entire trip for the girls was meeting the princesses. You had to stand in line to meet them but after seeing the way the masses attacked the characters that we did see about the park it made sense. So here are the girls meeting a few of the princesses.

We also stayed late at the park that night. I think the longest line we waited in was for Dumbo, totally lame. Here are the kids at night in the dumbo ride.

After we got back to the hotel that night the kids were exhausted. Here are the girls all passed out.Friday we did CA adventure. They had everything decorated for Halloween and the letters outside looked like candy corns. Here we are outside. My aunt Nancy came up and spent the day with us. We were all exhausted by noon so we went back to the hotel and the little ones took a nap while Olivia, Nancy, Trevor, and I went for a swim. The pool was pretty nice and Olivia had been asking to swim all week so it was nice they had the opportunity for a bit. After our rest we went back to Disneyland and had to get our tourist snapshot in front of the Mickey flowers.

Here is Jon and Olivia in front of the big pumpkin set up.What?!? We are going to see the princesses again in the parade?Of course we had to watch the big parade one night. Here is all of us watching. That concludes our Disney trip. It was a blast and I think the kids had a great time. Thanks for doing that with us Lucas family, we love you!

Vacation Day 4....San Diego Zoo

2008-11-02T19:19:00.000-08:00

Today we actually got the kids to sleep in until 7:30, can you believe? Ha! We woke up to a very foggy morning. I think I would hate to live on the coast for that reason. They call it the marine layer (or so my sister says) where it is pretty much cloudy/foggy in the morning and late afternoon when the sun isn’t hot enough to burn it off. I was really surprised how breezy and cool the weather was here next to the coast.With the CA City Passes we purchased for the trip we got a ticket to Sea World, one to San Diego Zoo or Wild animal park, one for Universal Studios and a 3 day hopper pass at Disneyland and CA adventure. It was such a great deal. When we got to the zoo they told us that we also got a free bus tour trip and a skyride with those tickets which was I think about a $30 value. I love good deals! So we started the day on a bus trip around the zoo. When we walked through the kids zoo they had this fun cut out that the kids posed in front of it.

My aunt Kathy met up with us at the zoo this day and we were able to visit and walk around together. They went through the petting zoo next where Alex the animal love was in heaven.

On the opposite end of the spectrum my nephew Cole is terrified of animals. I caught him in action on film.

Here is Kathy with some of the kids at the petting zoo.

The monkey house was a big hit with our monkeys. We probably hung out here for at least 30 min watching the orangutans and monkeys. Here is my niece Marnie giving him a kiss through the glass, so cute!

Don't hang out there too long or you might come home with a story like this one....

Here is the picture to prove it.....uh, gross!

Here is all the kiddos by the monkey habitat. Cody says, take a picture of me! Here is our family by the elephant tree outside the zoo.And the zoo sign.
Here is a picture of the cousins by the zoo sign.
And my sister's family by the sign.
After the zoo that afternoon we drove up to Anaheim and checked into our hotel for the evening. We passed a cheesecake factory getting off the interstate and went right back there for dinner that evening. It was probably the best meal of the trip. The kids actually ate baked chicken and mashed potatoes. My sister and I looked over the menu before the kids even sat down and didn't even give anyone a choice, it was pretty funny. Just said all the kids will be splitting 3 of of these. There were still left overs so the portions were huge, but it was yummy!

Vacation Day 3....

2008-11-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

No sleeping in for this crew. My kids were up bright and early at 6:40 this morning. It was either they aren’t adapted to the time change or having all 3 of them in one bed was a little too close of quarters. Tonight we will try one of them on the floor and 2 in the bed and see if that helps.We headed out to Sea World as soon as it opened at 10am. We got to see the big Clydesdale horses that they have there since Budweiser or I guess Anheuser Busch owns Sea World.Code-man was seriously in a horrible mood for the majority of the day…pill. But we saw a dolphin show, sea lion show, and the killer whale show. I have to say this was pretty cool. The dolphins can jump so high it was amazing.

We saw sharks in this glass tunnel that went under the shark exhibit…. and also a fossil of Megalodon shark which is an extinct shark. I had to take a picture of this because this cute little boy in my primary class is always talking to me about megalodon shark and how cool he is. Marnie had enough by lunch time and was passed out cold in her stroller so we hooked it to this netting by our lunch table so she was leaned back. I couldn't pass up this funny glam shot of Olivia....strike a pose!Here is my hot husband and the kids at the sea lion show.. Cody is still mad....That seemed to be a theme for the trip, unfortunately. Cole and Olivia were the only ones tall enough to ride on the roller coaster and river ride so they were the only ones that had the pleasure of being soaked.

I felt so bad for Alex because she has been seeing those commercials for Sea World and the big coaster and asking when she gets to ride it. She was just a hair too short. Poor girl!

The killer whale show (the Shamu Show) was phenomenal as well. It is so neat we are able to see these animals as close as we do.

The kids also played on this air bounce thing that was pretty funny. They kept tripping each other and falling over one another. Silly kids.

Here is our fam right inside the entrance to the park. Can’t pass up those fun family photo ops, right?

We also wanted the kids to see the ocean while were were here so took them to Mission Beach right before the sun went down. It was cool we got the picture right before the sun set. What a fun day.

Girls Dancing Video

2008-11-02T18:21:00.000-08:00

So here is the video from that second day at my aunts. I was having problems with google video so I guess You Tube will have to do.....

We got back on Saturday night in the early evening and I am still exhausted. I will try to update the blog on the rest of the trip this week as time allows. The guys came to install the carpet in our basement today, yipee. It is finally feeling "almost" done. My house smells like new carpet. I am back to work a few mornings a week and so far feel super busy. Tomorrow I am going down to Denver to volunteer with Komen and speak to a group of young adults about my cancer experience. I am really excited and hope it goes well.

Vacation Day 2…Dance Lessons and Swimming

2008-10-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

After waking up this morning the girls were treated to an introduction to ballet. My aunt Nancy has been dancing since she was little and teaching ballet for many years. When I was growing up she was in the Colorado Ballet, and we went down to see her dance one year. So in her home she has a ballet room with hardwood and a ballet bar. She had little ballet slippers for the girls and put on a little class for them. Cody was in there for about 2 min before he lost interest.She taught them first position with their feet…..And then their arms….Then they did a little stretching exercise. Alex was funny, kind of doing her own thing and watching rather than participating.
(videos to follow later as they won't upload on the road)

My aunt has taken many trips to Italy and has written a book about her travels and I think some of our family history from there. She took the time to show Amy and me around her home and tell us all about where she picked up different things in her home. We got to this statue of David and she explained that she had covered him up since the kids were coming. I thought the “outfit” was hysterical. He looks more like Tarzan now.The kids were in the pool from 9am to when we left that afternoon at 2pm. Here they are taking a hiatus from swimming. They decided they wanted to paint. I had picked up some things to keep them busy at the dollar store and these paint sets were a score. They came with two cardboard pictures to paint and then a set of paints. They LOVED them.Cody has turned into a little Michelangelo.Jon manned this position for most of the day catching the kids while they jumped off the wall. Way to go Dad-e-o!

My cousin Kathy came back over for lunch and to hang out for a bit before we left and Nancy treated us all to California Pizza Kitchen. Yummy! Here is my sister Amy, Nancy and me.

We left Palm Desert at about 2:30 and drove down to San Diego. Most of the kids slept on the way down, but what an ugly drive. Not what I think of when I think of California. It was mostly winding roads through desert-ish mountains with no trees. When we got to San Diego it was probably only mid 60s which was a huge switch from mid 90s out in Palm Desert so we all changed back into our pants and hit the Olive Garden for dinner. Jon and I ended up picking up a navigation system at Best Buy on the way out of LA since the rental car company wanted to charge us 10 bucks a day for one, we figured we might as well spend a little extra and take it home with us afterwards. So far it has turned out to be super helpful. It even found us an array of places to eat this evening that were close to the hotel. Isn’t technology cool? We came back to the hotel and the kids were all past out by 8:30 and we are raring to go and spend a full day at Sea World tomorrow!

Vacation Day 1....

2008-10-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

We made it in one piece out here to sunny (and hot!) CA. Jon and I both had an enormous to-do list yesterday so didn't make it to bed until midnight and then were up bright and early at 4:30am. Wow, I don't know that I have ever been up that early for the day, but I was so excited to embark on our trip I was wide awake. The kids on the other hand....grouchy, tired, un-excited-to-be-up-so-early-with-an-in-a-hurry-mom. We made it out the door by 5:15 and headed down to DIA.

We parked in long term parking so had to take a shuttle to the terminal and it made for pretty interesting times having 5 suit cases to check, 3 booster seats, a carry on for all 5 of us and a partridge in a pear tree. Basically Jon and I carrying all of these items plus keeping track of 3 children......I wouldn't recommend it. After we got through the nightmare of actually getting up to the terminal, checking our luggage, and getting through security (not to mention making it on time), it was not quite so stressful. Here is a snap shot of the kiddos running to the gate with their back packs. I still can't get over how small this giant back pack makes Cody look. What a midget.

When we finally got a seat at our gate and a moment's rest they were pre boarding for all the "special" passengers which included families with children so we had our queue to get back up and shuffle the kids onto the plane. All in all they did pretty well on the plane. I was excited to see their reaction to flying for the first time. Take off was pretty exciting but after that the whining started and Cody wanted to get off the airplane because it was boring. We did our best to entertain with Ipods and coloring books. At one point both Cody and Alex were quietly listening to a movie on the Ipods. This didn't last long before mom was up taking kids to the bathroom. I think I made 5 trips to the bathroom on that flight. Which warranted a comment from the stewardess about me having the patients of Job from the bible. I give it my best effort! Olivia actually had a hard time popping her ears on our decent but Jon finally got her to pop them by blowing her nose. She was in tears, poor girl.

We ended up renting a mini van for our vehicle this week because I wasn't about to pay a premium price for an expedition or something of the likes and so Jon will have the pleasure of driving his dream car for the week. Ha! He hates mini vans. I had to take a picture of him while he was entranced in his excitement!

We are starting our trip by visiting my aunt Nancy and cousin Kathy in the Palm Desert area so we drove down there from LA. On the way there was this huge wind farm with hundreds of wind turbines. I tried to take a picture but it just didn't capture the massive amounts like I thought it would. They were on both sides of the interstate, it was crazy.When we finally arrived in Palm Desert for the afternoon the kids enjoyed a swim at Kathy's house. I was surprised they swam there because the pool wasn't heated and even thought it was mid 90s outside it was freezing. But they were all in.....

I tried to stay dry but Cody and Alex couldn't touch the bottom so it made it hard to. They had a blast!

Here is Olivia showing off her jumping, what a little fish. She loves the water.

Since I don't see Nancy and Kathy often we had to snap a few photos, of course!

After visiting a bit at Kathy's we came back to Nancy's for dinner and we stayed the night there. Nancy also has a pool and jacuzzi in her back yard so the kids wanted to of course come back and swim there. She turned the heater on in the jacuzzi and the kids played for most of the time with Jon in the "warm tub". This was of course followed by the entourage of when are we getting one of these in our back yard type questions.....in your dreams Olivia! My sister Amy drove down from Sacramento and met us at Nancy's for dinner. Her family is also spending the week with us. We got a snap snot of all of us together. The kids were SO ready for bed by the time 8 o'clock rolled around they went right to bed. Nancy and I sat in the jacuzzi for a bit and got to visit since Jon was also wiped out and went to bed with the kids. It was nice just being able to hang out and relax a bit after a long day. What a fun first day! Now off to bed to do it again tomorrow!

Hurray!

2008-10-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

If anyone else is lucky enough to drive a diesel vehicle this is as exciting for you as it is for me. I can't even remember the last time we paid under 4 bucks a gallon for diesel.....

I guess even regular is under 3, so it's good news for all. My nephew had his birthday party on Thursday and so we had to snap a picture with all the cousins that were present for the gathering. What a cute bunch of kiddos! Happy birthday Aiden!

Monday, Monday....

2008-10-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

We have had lots going on since my last post. On Thursday I got together with 4 other ladies and did freezer meals. With TONS of pre-preparation (mostly by Michelle--you're awesome) we spent Thursday morning putting together 20 meals that will go in the freezer and then are ready to pop in the oven after thawing. I hope that it is a huge time saver and the family will like them.

Thursday night my mom invited us over for scones because she made home-made bread on Thursday. Scones are a favorite of mine so we all headed over there for dinner. Oh my, yummy. After some convincing and lots of sugar the kids ate them and actually liked them too. Good thing, because those might be making an appearance in my house before too long! Before dinner the kids had a great time playing with grandpa in the backyard. They found a different way to swing, it was pretty funny. My dad looked like he had an extra appendage, or two. (Aren't the trees pretty when they are changing colors?)

Jon hurt his neck last week at work and it just seemed to get worse and worse and so he went to the chiropractor and little by little it has improved. Here is the happy camper icing down his injury.Poor guy! Luckily he is feeling better this week. I received a call last week from my local support group Hope Lives! asking me if I would be willing to go and hang out with a dorm over at CSU (Colorado State University) while they made shirts for breast cancer awareness month. I asked my friend Heather if she wanted to go along with me. The 2 of us headed out there on Thursday evening and joined in making shirts and then told our stories and answered questions. I was surprised at the turn out, there was probably 30 kids there making shirts. I had a great experience just sharing my story, answering questions, and also hearing more of Heather's story. I had such a great time that I came home and researched volunteer opportunities for Komen. Apparently they have a young women's program that promotes education on high school and college campuses. I sent in a volunteer application and hoping to be able to be more involved with the education side of this disease. So we will see what happens with that.

Friday Jon and I went out to dinner and bowling with Courtnee and Seth to celebrate her birthday. We of course had a great time and were home by 10:30. Wow, sad, but alas we are now responsible (most of the time) parents and those kids still are awake early no matter how late we stay out. Bringing me to a new late night past time.....Jon and I now like to play Lego Star Wars on Xbox 360. Jon isn't home very much at night since he works nights and always has a hard time switching back and forth on the weekends so we ended up staying up late playing the xbox and have had fun just playing and hanging out.

Saturday and Sunday Jon was on call so gone for most of those days. He has been working a ton and we are both really excited to be leaving for our big vacation on Saturday....yeah! Saturday night we went over to my friend Abbey's house to hang out with friends. So all in all a pretty jam packed weekend.

Today the twins started back to preschool after having a week off and I started back to work. Since my hours with work have been getting cut back from work slowing down I am going to be going into the office to work part time and then picking up what I can at home still. Hopefully this will work out well with the kids school schedule and not be too hectic. Well off to bed to get my beauty sleep and be ready for another day back at work tomorrow!

Buddy Check 9

2008-10-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

Hey ladies here is our buddy check nine message for this month. Remember to do your monthly self exam and go in and be seen for ANYTHING abnormal. Better to be safe than sorry!!

Hello Everyone!

What a day. What a race. What a crowd. For 16 years now men, women and children have come together on a Sunday morning to show their commitment to finding a cure for breast cancer. Every day, important steps are taken in research, treatment and education. These steps are best understood with the image we will hold in our memories of hundreds of women and men with pink hats crossing the finish line.

They are our sisters, friends, mothers, grandmothers, neighbors, fathers, sons and daughters. They are our inspiration and strength to keep walking and running for this goal. This is a movement that cannot be stopped or silenced. Every day more people join this battle. In Colorado, the statistics show 1 in 7 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. If the cancer is in an early stage, it is very treatable. While no one can change the diagnosis statistics, we can help with early detection. Please get a mammogram and please do regular self exams. Today is Buddy Check 9 day. We ask you to do a self exam and tell someone else to do the same.

Join us and keep the faith!

I AM....THE CURE.

2008-10-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I participated in Race for the Cure in Denver. Amazing, awesome, a truly moving experience. My friend Heather who I met at the beginning of the summer and who is currently under going chemotherapy decided last week that she wanted to go down with me. What a strong lady. I was feeling so crappy during treatment that it didn't even cross my mind to try and participate in the race. I "slept in for the cure" the last 2 years. Which is just registering but not actually participating in the race. They just mail you a shirt. I was so excited when she called and wanted to participate with me. Since neither of us had participated we had no idea what to expect.
She picked me up about 6am and we drove down to the outskirts of Denver and parked her car and rode the transit bus into the city since traffic was a nightmare. I really enjoyed just being able to visit and get to know her better during the whole day. What a great experience not only for the race but just being able to strengthen our friendship. We had registered for the co-ed walk which started at 8:30 and the women's race started at 7am. While on the bus into the city we went under the overpass as the women's racers were starting. I was astounded at the sheer volume of people that were participating. We hiked over to the Pepsi Center where the race was and had some time to walk around in the survivor area. We scored some free stuff and they made us these really fun buttons. I have a picture of it on my slide show above. We were both cracking up because when we sat down I told her I felt like we were "partners" if you know what I mean and maybe next year we should come in wedding veils. Ha! I think that the 2 of us were joking around and laughing for a big part of the morning.

We started our race at 8:30 although we were a ways away from the actual starting line and it took at least 10 min to get to the starting line after they let us start. It was a 5K and I think we walked it in about an hour and a half. Heather and I had a blast just taking it all in. Seeing all the signs telling why everyone was walking, laughing at all the funny costumes, laughing at each other and just having awesome conversation the whole time. I must say that the actual walk kicked my butt. I am so sore today that I can barely move, but it was well worth it.

I cannot even put into words the overwhelming feelings that I experienced. Being one in 62,000 people attending either the biggest or 2nd biggest race in the country, I just felt so lucky to have all those people there racing for a cure. For research dollars. For me and every other woman ever diagnosed with breast cancer. Wow. I hope that in my life time we will see a cure for not only breast cancer but all types of cancer. It brought such mixed emotions when going to write my back sign. I thought, gol. It really sucks when I know so many women, some survivors, some still fighting, and some that have lost their battle with cancer that I don't have enough space to write them all down on this piece of paper. How do you sum it up? Stupid, dumb cancer. Although I am extremely grateful for all of these relationships with these women, the basis of the relationship sucks.

When we were finished with the race Heather and I took a bit of a siesta and just parked it on the asphalt while we ate our free snacks from safeway. Chips, granola bar, package of green chili......seriously they donated a single serve packet of green chili. mmm-k. It was random. But we got a good laugh out of it. For the survivor ceremony they had all the survivors come up on the stage and sit in the grand stands. We walked up through military personnel and their swords. It was pretty neat. Heather and I were walking up to the stands and she started crying and immediately this obnoxious reported got right up in her face with his camera. Annoying. In the stands I sat in front of a gal that ended up introducing herself to me as someone I had talked to when I was doing chemo. She was a friend of a friend and had been following my blog as she had recently finished her treatment. I was so glad she stopped me because I had never met her. I hope to get in touch with her at some point. That network of survivors, I tell ya, always looking out for their own!

After the closing ceremony we met up with Ady, Kristen, Jodie, and Anne. I had talked to Ady through myspace as she is mutual friends with a few of my friends so it was nice to finally meet her. We all decided we would have to start a team for next year and do all the fun costumes and come down together. We decided to go out to eat and Noodles before coming back home. It was so fun to get to know these gals better, they are a riot and I hope to hang out with them again sometime soon.

By the time we finally made it back to Heather's car it was about 1 and then we didn't get back home until a little after 2. I think Heather and I were both ready to just crash. We had be walking around all morning, and I haven't been up that early in a long time! Thanks to Jon he had the kids taken care of all day and even made dinner on Sunday night. I was able to just lounge around the whole rest of the day. Thanks babe, you're the best.

Today I am wishing my legs would just fall out of my hip joint. I thought I would be sore in my thighs and calves but no, I feel like my hips are going to fall apart. I wonder what that is all about, besides the fact I am terribly out of shape :-) Yikes I better start walking around more before our trip to Disneyland in 2 weeks. We will be walking around for a week straight. Maybe I can get one of those rascal scooters, huh? Ha! If anyone has any good tips for us for our trip PLEASE pass them on. We have never even flown with the kids so this is going to be quite the experience. Does anyone know if the booster seats (for the car) count as a checked bag?

Girls Gone Mild #3 - Ceramics Style

2008-10-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

***Plagiarism-shizzum warning***** Since Alyssa already did an awesome recap of our event this Friday I am going to just copy her too perfect synopsis of the evening, here it goes:

This past Friday (10/3/08) was our 3rd Girls Night Out (GNO). We decided to switch it up a bit from our previous activities that have left us rather sore the next day (roller skating, dancing, bowling) and we went to a ceramics studio and dinner We had a great time. Here we are getting our paint on.

After our ceramics extravaganza, we cruised the King Sooper parking lot at negative 2 miles an hour - no joke - thank you Aislinn and then headed out to dinner at Rock Bottom. Most of us had never been there before and we were all really happy with how nice it was.Here is Kari, Michelle and Eliza in the backseat of Ais's car. I have no idea what they could possibly be laughing at. (FYI - Eliza always cries when she laughs - we really don't "make" her cry on purpose.) hee hee

Here are Kari and Eliza throwing some hard core Vampire 4 Life signs.

Too bad thought your Vampires ain't got nothing on our Werewolf's 4 Life!!!!

Had another GRRRRREAT evening with the best gals in town!!! Very much looking forward to our next GNO on 11/21/08 Twlight premier ladies - hoooollllaaaa!!! Can't wait!

Thanks for letting me straight copy this from you Alyssa!

Twins Visit the Fire Station

2008-10-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

This week the twins went on their first field trip on Thursday to the fire station. I wasn't sure that I would be able to take the trip with them because I got a flu bug at the beginning of the week. I was so sick on Tuesday and Wednesday but thankfully felt much better by Thursday.

We met at "Mrs. Karen's" and brought both the twins class and the Tuesday/Thursday preschool class on the trip. We all loaded into the fire station living room to sit down and watch the fireman put on all his gear.

Since we went with the 3 yr old class Grayson and Lauren were with us, so my kids thought that was neat. The kids were a little scared of the fireman after he had all of his gear on so Mrs. Karen had them all go walk around him and see. They had to explain that when he was all dressed up he was a "helper" and not someone to be scared of. They also showed the kids the pole they slide down to get to the trucks. Wow, neat!!Here is the "twin" squad. I had to sit with them because they were afraid to stand next to the truck.

Then of course they were able to take turns sitting in the truck.We wanted a group picture in front of the truck but the sun ended up shining right in their eyes so they were all trying to block the sun out of their eyes.After we went to the fire station we went to a neighborhood park to play for a bit.

Did I mention that the kid's shirts look like pajama's? A little big, well I guess Cody is just small. They had a great time and it was fun for me to be able to spend some time with them and their school class.

Friends and new Fake boobs?

2008-09-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

Last week one of my friends from high school was in town with her kids so a group of us got together at the park to play. Jerilyn, Brittany, and Susie it was great to get together and I had lots of fun catching up! You're guys' kiddos are beautiful!

I also had a girls night for the gals I went through treatment with and the people involved in the new online support group through yahoo groups I started. It was so much fun. We just got together to eat at the Olive Garden and visited. Lanie and Karen were both there so of course we had to get a group shot of us now that we all have longer hair. (This looks much better than the bald one of us in the chemo treatment room with IVs sticking out of all 3 of us!! We have come a long way ladies!)

Here is Heather and I. I met Heather a few months ago through a friend and have had so much fun getting to know her. She is a hoot and is the publisher of a mother's magazine that is awesome. She is an amazing writer and will be in next month's STYLE magazine as a model and also contributed an article that is of course amazing. Check it out if you see the issue in the community. If you want to look at her magazine it is called get born and you can view it at http://www.getbornmag.com/

This is Judy and her daughter Traci that I met through the Yahoo message board. She is also a riot.

I am really excited about the message board as a bunch of new women have joined this last week and I am hopeful that we will have more traffic on it and be able to provide an excellent support network. I wish I would have thought of this while I was in treatment. Hopefully it is a valuable resource for everyone. If you or someone you know would benefit from it please send them my way. There is a link in the upper right corner of the side bar on my blog page.

I also had an appointment with the wonderful Dr. Brewster last week. She told me that she did think that we could improve the look of the radiation damaged side. The scar tissue has really tightened around the implant and it hasn't "settled" like the other side has so it sits about an inch higher than the left side. All of these things are not very noticeable when wearing a bra or outside my clothes so I am not super worried about it but might as well fix it if it is bothering me before I have to pay my deductible again. She will try to loosen up the scar tissue and the tight tendons around my chest muscle and then put in a little bigger implant to try and match the other side better. It will just be 50 or so cc's larger and will hopefully take care of the uneven look I now have. So I have set the surgery date of Nov 12th which will give me a few weeks after we get home from Disneyland but be before Thanksgiving and the holidays and most importantly before I have to start over with paying my deductible at the first of the year. I will have it at the Harmony surgery center again when I have received awesome care in the past so am looking forward to returning there.

Basement Update

2008-09-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have been such a blog slacker lately. It just seems like every time I want to sit down to update I have something else going one. I am so busy lately. Lots of stuff has gone on here. Jon has been hard at work on our basement and we have done lots the last few weeks.

Seth came over and finished most of the electrical stuff. So we have light switches that work and I finally, after 2 years have lights that go down my stairs. Since our ceilings are vaulted upstairs and there isn't a ceiling above our stairs, it is just open, I have had no lights on the stairs since we started this project. Seth put in these sweet LED lights that rock! I love them!

Jon has also spent a large amount of his time in the basement the last 2 weekends doing the tile. I must say that I am really impressed that it looks so great since this is his first time installing tile. Not that I expected it to be bad but it looks great. He did the floor and the shower. All the tiles are even lined up right on the bench for the shower. What a guy, huh?! Looks great babe.

This last Saturday he put in the toilet, which was a big deal with the kids for some reason. Alex was all excited that she could actually go potty on it if she really wanted to. What a funny girl. So yeah, a pooper and the finished tile project!
We have picked out the carpet but are trying to shop around for the best price for carpet and installation. We also went to try and pick out some cabinets for the bathroom and the family room. We are hoping that this project will finally be finished in the next few months. We are all more than ready for the extra space!

The big S-I-X

2008-09-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

I have a six year old. I am sure this sounds dumb to all you with older children but wow, I can't believe it has been 6 years since I had Olivia. She invited some of her little friends over in the afternoon and then we had family over later.

The kids played red rover again which was a huge hit, they would have played this all day!

Caleb ended up being the only boy that came, even though a few were invited so he wasn't too excited to hang with the girls. Caleb and Cody became fast friends and hung out the entire afternoon.

On to the presents....she got a lot of things she really liked. Of course we have to have the High School Musical merchandise.

Jon pretended to have her new jamies fit him and was joking around with the kids. Jon, pink is your color!

We sang her happy birthday.

Later we enjoyed spending the evening with family. Aunt Clara helped get Cody his dinner.

Doug was here for the evening.

Jon's parents were out of town for most of Aug so missed the twins birthday so came with presents for all the kids. Alex got a CD player so she can listen to her new high school musical CD in her own room. What a big girl! Cody got a Geo Trax building to add to his set. Score!

Olivia got the movie "where the little girl feeds the horse Popsicles". She has been asking for it since we rented it last year.She also got a really cute Sunday dress from my parents that she wore the next day to church.

Happy Birthday baby girl!

Week with aunt Toni

2008-09-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

My sister Toni came out to visit us the week after Labor day with her son Jack. We had such a great time with her. She was over hanging out lots and the kids loved seeing her and "baby Jack". She even let Alex play with all the make up in her purse and gave her a make over. Alex was in heaven.
There was one day that we were out running around for most of the day and about 5 min away from home Alex actually fell asleep in her car seat. That NEVER happens anymore. I had to catch it on film!

I didn't realize that I really didn't take that many pictures of her visit until now, but it was a fun week. Her husband Doug came out on Friday and was able to be here for Olivia's birthday party so that was really fun. We love it when you come and visit Toni, but the kids want to know when they get to see Buddy! (Buddy is my sister's dog)

Our Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

For Labor Day we went to our normal camping spot up in Wycolo to camp and ride the quads. We had a blast! Our friends Aislinn and Desi came with their kids, Brad and Patti came with their kids, and Seth came with the boys. We ended up leaving really late because I had to work until 5pm and then by the time we all headed out of town it was time for dinner so had to stop for dinner as well. When we got up to Laramie we always stop at the Sinclair station and since it was already 8pm I thought we might as well get the kids into their pj's so we aren't changing them up in the dark when we are trying to set everything up. I went back into the camper to get the pj's and noticed that I forgot to pack ANYTHING for Olivia. How did that happen?? I guess that is what I get for having a million things on my plate that day. Unfortunatly we had picked her up at a friends on the way out of town and she was wearing a skirt, tank top, and flip flops. Um.....not so much for the crisp and cool mountains. So we had to track down Wal Mart in Laramie and buy her clothes for the entire weekend. Sheesh! I guess it was a good thing we found out then and not when we were in the middle of nowhere.

When we finally got up to our spot it was after 10 and didn't have time to do anything except set up and get into bed. In the morning the toys all came out and we went for a little ride with Desi and Aislinn before they had to pack up and take off. The kids thought Brad and Patti's little Power Wheel quads were the best.

Everyone enjoyed the hammock.

And all the kids got lots of practice riding and driving on the little 80s around the campsite.

Saturday was also the twins actual birthday so Jon, Olivia, and I gave them our gifts up there. This also marked my 2 year diagnosis date so it was a good day to be up away from it all with my family. I just feel so grateful to be able to still be here and enjoying my family and be healthy. I can now say I am a 2 year survivor..yeah!

On Sunday our friend Kenny came up to hang out and play tour guide. He know the trails up there so well and there are so many of them I don't know how we don't get lost. But Sunday he took us all on a long ride to the sand dunes in Walden. It was a very cool ride. Lots of fun riding over trails and then the dunes just pop out of the mountains, it is crazy. Look at this view coming down from the mountain.Isn't it cool? Here is Jon taking Cody on a ride up the top of the dune.

On the way back we were "hard core" and crossed a beaver pond. It was fun, but of course since I am the one always taking pictures I don't have a picture of me doing it, only Seth since he was behind me.

Also by the beaver crossing there was this huge hill that the kids were obsessed with. What is it with kids and hills? So once the kids went up it the guys thought they would try to race to the top. Jon chickened out, but that hill is steeper than it looks!

We had a great weekend and Cody still asks every day...When are we going "at camping" again mom? That boy would live "at camping" if he had a choice. He loves it there. On the drive home I captured Alex in her element of "Alex's Own World" so I had to share.

That is always so funny when they don't think anyone is paying attention. Also on the way home I experienced the actual feeling of thinking we were going to die. Except for really..... This guy was going super slow and so we tried to go around him and Jon got a little over zealous with the rate of speed we were traveling to pass. The trailer was swaying all over the road, and I mean all over. It was amazing there was nobody coming the other direction since we were traveling on a 2 lane highway. I am not really sure how we were able to even gain control of the vehicle again. Jon remained calm, thank goodness while I panicked in the passenger seat. I was actually shaking for at least 10 min afterwards. I have never been that freaked out before. Jon said "I don't think it is a good thing when you can see all 3 wheels of the trailer in the side view mirror." The trailer has a triple axle so at one point it was close to sideways from the car. Later Jon realized that the trailer brake wasn't turned up enough, either way, I don't think we will be trying to pull the trailer going 80 again. EEKKK, it gives me the chills just to think about it again. Brad and Patti were following us home and called about 5 min after it happened to ask Jon if he had changed his pants yet. It's all fun and games until you're in the vehicle that is about to crash :-)

It was a wonderful weekend though, and hopefully we are able to have lots more of these next summer!

Capsular Con-what???

2008-09-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I had to go to the dentist today to get a cavity filled. I had gone last week for my yearly appointment and they found the cavity. So after I dropped of the twins at preschool off I went to spend "my" morning by myself at the stupid dentist. Not that every getting a cavity filled is a pleasant experience but this one especially sucked because it was between 2 of my back teeth and they had to shove all this extra "stuff" up there to space the teeth apart to actually fill the cavity. So about 1/2 way through this procedure as they are literally jamming things into my mouth the words CAPSULAR CONTRACTURE pop into my head. I had to sign this big form after my reconstruction about the risk of this condition and promise to take antibiotics before ever seeing the dentist even for a routine exam. Apparently even the best brushers have very dirty and germy mouths. In hopes of not developing an infection from dental cleaning the antibiotics are taken. If you develop an infection of any sort you are at high risk for getting this capsular contracture. (which by the way if you google this be ready to see pictures of breasts) I tried to put a link up with no photos but just so you are forewarned. Any-who of course I had forgotten all about this stupid thing and started to panic with my mouth opened as wide as it could go and no hopes of being able to do anything to communicate this with my dentist at the moment of realization that I am an idiot. Of course the last 1/2 of my appointment I spent thinking about all the surgeries I have had to endure to be at this stage of my reconstruction and of course getting this capsular contracture out of my own stupidity and having to start the process all over again......You know the typical panicked thinking the worst and getting worse as the thinking progresses? Yeah I am one of those. Of course I had gone over my medical history with the dentist who never mentioned anything about it so was oblivious to this being an issue.
After the damage had been done, the cavity filled, my neck broken from all the straining, my jaw aching, my tongue, mouth and half my face numb and feeling like the elephant women I had to try and explain the situation to the dentist. Trying to be discrete about the problem and the breast implants at the front check out counter was the pleasant experience with 2 young girls looking at me wondering why I didn't look like Pam Anderson if I had chosen to get implants (of course knowing nothing of my medical history). I suppose I could be hypersensitive to it but seriously quit looking at my chest already! Yes there are silicone implants in my chest and I am only a B cup. Didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude to stare :-) Back to the dentist who was clueless looking at me in almost the same way while I was saying my surgeon told me I had to have antibiotics before dental work. He had never heard of this before. So I had to call up Dr. Brewster's office and get the gal at the office to explain what I needed to do. "Go pick them up and take them NOW." So I finally go the script from my dentist and ran over the pharmacy to the the meds, which of course are terrible on your tummy.
As soon as I walked in the door I had to take an Aleve because my jaw and mouth hurt so bad already, even though I was numb. The dentist said he had to move things around in there a lot to get to the cavity and I could be uncomfortable for a few days. Terrific. Uncomfortable is putting it mildly this evening as it hurts to even open my mouth.
I find myself wondering if I will ever escape this cancer crap...I am thinking no. I can't believe I forgot about this antibiotic thing with the dentist.