After Christmas Shopping

Aunt Lorina and Aunt Christina gave the girls the cutest gift! They gave them each a gift card to Payless, a gift card to Claire's, and a gift card to JC Penney (Emma) or a gift card to Justice (Lauren). They put the gift cards in a cute box and called it an "outfit in a box." We took the girls to the mall yesterday and let them shop for their outfits. We ate lunch at Olive Garden using a gift card from Aunt Shannon, and had tons of fun together. We talked about missing Nana during our shopping trip, because one of the best parts of spending Christmas in Las Vegas is after-Christmas shopping with Nana, but we still had a great time. Here's the fashion show:
Lauren got a shirt at JC Penney, because Landon needed $5 more to use a $10 off coupon for a hoodie he was buying for himself. Lauren found a $5 clearance shirt at JC Penney, so she lucked out that Dad bought her something. She bought the shoes at Payless with her gift card. She liked them because they were just like Nana's shoes. They are slip-on athletic-type shoes. She also found some cute black flats for Church, or other occasions.

Lauren had just enough money left over for some glove/mittens! Cute!

At Claire's, Lauren bought a necklace, a wallet, some glittery "mood" nail polish, and ducky earrings.

Emma didn't find any shoes she liked at Payless yesterday, so we went back today to the Rexburg Payless. She didn't see anything again, but of course Lauren spotted some shoes she had to have: (She used her own money!)

Emma had some success at JC Penney. She is a selective shopper, and would rather wait for exactly what she wants. She spent half her gift card on these lovely items:

This is a grey, sweater-type thing that you wear over another shirt. It's actually really cute.

This is a purple, cotton/rayon shirt with a crocheted top. She will wear a white, 3/4 length sleeve undershirt, under this shirt. It is really cute and looks great on her.

At Claires, she bought 3 pairs of earrings (kind of hard to see in the picture) and a wallet. The wallets were buy one get one free, so if anyone needs a wallet, you could offer to buy one from her. She was really happy with her purchases.

This is me. Landon made me a ham sandwich with chips and a diet Pepsi for lunch today. I had just returned from shopping with the girls, then shopped online with Lauren at Justice so she could spend her giftcard. I was tired and my back hurt, so I took a vicodin and asked Landon to make me lunch. I'm a lucky girl!

This is Emma's science project. She's entering the school district science fair. She is doing it on how fast seeds germinate. The seeds are in wet paper towels in plastic bags hanging on the wall next to the bathroom.

Christmas 2010 Slideshow

Instead of a huge post, I just made a slideshow. I hope it works. Some of the text is small and hard to read. I hope you can pause it in order to read it. It looks better when you make it full screen. (Also, it lasts like 6+ minutes, but the actual pictures are only about 5 minutes.) Good luck! We had a delightful Christmas!!!

Christmas Events

We're on Christmas break now, but the days leading up to the break were filled with all kinds of programs and concerts for the girls. I am so glad the programs and events are over! I wish they were spread out and not so concentrated right during the last week of school before the break. Here are some pictures and videos of the last couple of weeks:

Nana came to see Emma in a ballroom dance competition and Lauren in a comedy theater performance.Emma competed in the Swing, the Waltz and the ChaCha with her ballroom dance team. She and her partner came in 8th place in the Waltz. She made it past the first round in each dance style. We were really proud of her! She looked super cute, too.
Lauren has been participating in a city of Rexburg drama class that focuses on skits and comedy. She had a performance at the Rexburg Tabernacle a couple of weeks ago. She did fantastic! She loves being on stage and we'll keep looking for opportunities for her to act.The first picture is of Landon and Emma and Lauren after the performance. The next is of Lauren up on the stage in a skit where they're all supposed to be sitting in a school classroom.

One day last week, Lauren's school had a program with all the kids in the whole school participating. Lauren's class sang Winter Wonderland, and Lauren was one of the few kids in the school who had a speaking part.

We attended Emma's orchestra concert at the new high school auditorium. It is a beautiful auditorium, but it was still overfilled with the family members of the 3 grades from the middle school orchestra. It was impossible to get a picture of Emma. She is in the back directly behind the teacher. Playing the bass isn't exactly glamorous.

Landon got stuck doing all the holiday cookie baking with the girls. He really dislikes baking, but he's such a good dad, so he make these cute little candy cane cookies with the girls. They also made gingerbread cookies together.

Landon's class decorated gingerbread houses for their class party. There were two extra, so he brought them home for Lauren and Emma to decorate:

Last Sunday I had intended to go to church, but I cleaned the bathroom a little too vigorously on Saturday and almost ripped open my surgical wounds, so I stayed home. I made Landon and Emma take pictures of each other because I thought they looked fantastic! Landon bought 2 new suits when his mom was here, to celebrate graduating with his Master's and to be prepared to interview and obtain a principal job soon. He wore it to church on Sunday and I thought he looked hot.

Emma bought this skirt from Downeast Outfitters in the summer and I just found this cute shirt to wear with it. She hadn't worn the skirt yet because she couldn't seem to find the right shirt to go with it. I'm not sure if the picture shows it, but in person she looked about 16 years old. She's 5 feet 4 inches now and looks so grown up!!

My Surgery

Here are some fun pictures taken during the days right after my surgery.

This was either the first or second day I was home. This was before we bought a recliner, and before I started wearing make-up again. We are never away from each other, so the fact that I was gone for almost 6 whole days was a really big deal. Everyone wanted to be practically right on top of me. Every time someone walked by, I got lots of loves and kisses.

Those first couple of days were really painful to get up. I had to have Landon stand there and let me hold his arm to get up off the toilet! I also had to have either Landon or my mom follow me as I walked up the stairs, and let me walk down the stairs holding onto his/her shoulders. I only went up the stairs once a day and down the stairs once a day for the first week. I only showered every other day for the first week, and then only with Landon in the shower with me. He didn't trust that I wouldn't fall down, plus I couldn't reach to clean all the important parts. That first week was kind of funny, because whenever I'd get ready to stand up, everyone would stop what they were doing and watch me, waiting for me to fall down or something. I never did! I did groan and do deep breathing exercises when it really hurt.

Thanksgiving was the 2nd day I was home. Landon made a turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, stuffing, store-bought rolls, cranberry sauce and sparkling cider to drink. We had Marie Callendar cherry pie and pecan pie. I actually sat at the table to eat. It was a happy, delicious meal. We were very grateful to have Grammy with us.Grammy made this wreath with Lauren and Brooklyn. Emma was in charge of the Christmas decorating this year, so this was a good project to keep Lauren busy while Emma did her thing without uninvited input.

So we got this recliner the day after Thanksgiving. It was a medical necessity, as far as I'm concerned. I needed the support under me so I could stand up without help from anyone. Landon rearranged the furniture so that we could fit the Christmas tree, as well as the recliner in the living room. He had to move the wiring so we could move the computer into the kitchen. It was a 2 day project, all so we could get a recliner in the living room. He's been wanting a recliner since we got rid of our last one, so he was willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.

Lauren needed new snowpants, so just before my surgery I ordered these cute pants from JC Penney. They were so cheap that I got some for Emma as well. Lauren shaved my legs for me! She wants to be a nurse or doctor someday, so I let her see as much as she wants to see and do whatever she can do to help me. The girls were fascinated by the leg shaving project and Emma gave it a try too. Landon wanted to make sure the girls didn't miss anything, so he shaved the back of my legs. It became a family project. Funny, huh?

Heidi Christensen brought us over our Christmas gift, which was a crepe pan! She brought some crepe batter, too. Landon instantly became an expert crepe flipper. They were so good!! Heidi has come over several times to visit or check on me or whatever. She's such a good friend! All of my friends have been so helpful in different ways. I'm really blessed so have such great friends in my life.

Get ready to see something really gross!!! Don't look if you can't handle gross stuff.....This is the site where the chest tube was located. The tube drained the blood and guts from my lungs and chest right after my surgery. I had it in for 3 days. It drained into a bucket-type container. The part that was in my chest, under my skin, was about 10 inches long. The site looks really gross, but I guess it's healing fine. It's about 4-6 inches above my waist line, in the front, kind of under my boob.

This is the actual incision. It's about 12 inches long. This starts under my left arm and goes up and around my back, following my rib line. There were 24 staples. The staples were removed on Tuesday and now it's just pink and kind of scaly. The incision is where they went in to remove the rib, collapse the lung, remove the tumor and fuse my spine. As much as everyone wants to relate to me, I didn't have my appendix removed, a hysterectomy, a heart bypass, or a C-section. This surgery is unique and has different characteristics than everyone else's surgeries. I'm trying to patiently listen to everyone else's experiences, but I think it's hard for people to understand that each surgery is different. (I appreciate compassion, but I don't like people telling me they know exactly what I'm going through.) And by the way, I don't need anyone else to point out that I could get addicted to the pain medication. I'm well aware of the addictive nature of narcotics and I'm still choosing to manage my pain with what the doctor has prescribed to manage my pain. Can anyone guess that I'm annoyed by a lot of the helpful advice I'm getting?

Small Update

I don't have any pictures right now, but I'll try to update the blog anyway. I'm not even going to try to catch up the past two weeks, mainly because I don't remember a lot of it.
Grammy has been here since November 18th and left today. We won't miss the 95 phone calls a day she receives, but we will miss her happy, positive energy. The girls had so much fun with her, and for the first time in 20+ years I had to allow someone else to do things I literally couldn't do for myself. It was humbling and very appreciated.
When Landon and Lauren took Grammy to the airport they brought us back a large pepperoni pizza from Lucy's Pizzeria. It was amazing!!! I love that place. We've had nightly meals from people in our ward since I returned from the hospital, and we'll have one more meal on Monday night. As much as we have appreciated the fantastic meals, I've missed eating out and I've missed our "flavor" of foods. I'm tired of bland chicken and rice variations, and I miss Landon's spicy, flavorful, creative meals. Tonight he's making a hot Parmesan/broccoli/spinach dip with toasted baguette slices and salad with a homemade ranch/tomatillo/lime/cilantro/jalapeno dressing. Yummy!
Emma has the flu! She's been really achy and tired and sleeping on the couch a lot. Lauren has been Daddy's helper girl. She's been super sweet and very helpful to Emma and me.
Our roof has had some serious problems since yesterday around 7:30am. It's been leaking water down the outside wall and seeping up through the living room floor. Our carpet has been completely saturated and flooded with water from the wall inside about 6 feet into the living room. I had to call around and find someone to fix the ice block and bring us a dehumidifier until Landon got home from work yesterday. We borrowed the Jones' Shop Vac and used it a couple of times to hold back the water. When Landon got home, he got up on the roof and finished the de-icing process. I had been online sending emails and calling HOA board members until someone finally came over and took a look at our mess about 12 hours after it started. Today we had someone come over and fix the leak problem until the winter is over, hopefully. With Emma's flu and the flooded living room and my persistent back/rib pain, it's been a hell of a couple of days.
At least I caught up my blog!!! When I figure out how to use our new camera, I'll try to post some pictures soon.