The kids had a medal ceremony today at school. 

Kaitlyn and Emily were first.

 Ian was next.

 Then it was Brittany's turn.

 Brittany's teacher gave all the kids these stuffed animals and things for Easter.

 Kaitlyn was sad she didn't get a stuffed animal, so Britt let her hold hers. Kait got the egg filled with candy.

sadly, I didn't get to go because I still do not feel well enough.

Surgery update and helpers....

If you recall, at my doctors appt on Tuesday, the doctor said I should start feeling better soon.

I have honestly grown to hate the word soon.... Every day since the appt., I have been in way more pain. The pain is so bad that I cannot even make it a full 4 hours between pain meds without wanting to cry like a baby.

So, I had to start taking them a little closer together because I figured that would be better than taking 2 at a time which the doctor also said I could do. I have had 9 surgeries 1 per year for the last 9 years..... 3 c sections, 2 knee surgeries, wisdom teeth removed, a EDG, and A D&C... Let me tell you a little something.... I have taken more pain meds with this surgery than with any of the other.... probably close to more than all the other 8 put together.... It is that bad!!! By far the worst of all the surgeries I have had. I have tried eating more things, but nothing seems to work. It either gets stuck in my throat, hurts like crazy or is too solid.

Please pray I will be out of pain and able to eat soon.

On a side note, a dear friend of mine had her tonsils out the day before me. A few days ago, she text me that her throat was bleeding and she was in the ER. I was so scared for her. Then I hear from her husband she is going into surgery. Then again from her husband... She is out of surgery but they are keeping her overnight. Then again from her husband..... She may have to have a blood transfusion. Then finally I hear from my friend... They did not have to do a blood transfusion but they had to go in a cauterize her throat. The doctor told her it was basically like she had to start her recovery over.... She was 7 days in..... How frustrating for her. Please pray she can recover quickly and have no more complications.

Ok onto some cuteness.... We had asked the girls to help clean up the house.... Alyssa comes running into the living room soooooo excited. Mom I cleaned up all the balloons. I just had to go look.

It was too cute that I didn't even make her finish cleaning that room :)

 Then they were cleaning Alyssa's room by putting all the animals in the doll house. They were so cute playing together that I just snapped a picture and walked away. I love my sweet girls!!

Dinner from the ward

I live in a pretty awesome ward. They always step to help those in need.

As soon as they found out about my surgery, the meals started coming in.

The first night (Sat.) my visiting teacher brought in stromboli.... I head never heard of this before.

It is similar to a calzone with a dipping sauce on the side. This one had meatballs, pepperoni, onions, Feta cheese and a few other things. She also brought a yellow cake mix cookies with chocolate chips for dessert.

On Sunday, One of our ward members brought us some Papa Murphys..... They brought cheese bread with dipping sauce, 2 pizzas, cookie dough, and 2 types of soup for me. I loved that they thought of me :)

On Monday, 2 sisters brought us dinner. They brought mashed potatoes, rotisserie chicken, rolls, and Jello salad for me. My moms's visiting teacher brought rice krispie treats for dessert.

Tonight 2 different sisters brought dinner. They brought Angel hair pasta with alfredo sauce, grilled chicken, caesar salad, rolls, butter plus homemade jello and yogurt for me. They also had blueberry muffins (still warm) for dessert.

I love that all these wonderful people dropped everything to help me take care of my family while I am not able.

I am truly blessed!

Also, my brother (in law) and his kids came over to check on me today and give me loves.

On another side note.... Brittany comes in every few minutes no matter what they are doing (playing outside, playing in her room etc,) and checks on me. She is constantly asking me if I am doing ok or if I need anything. If I mention needing something, she runs off to get it.

This next portion may be a little gruesome.... Stop reading now if you do not like gross.

I went into my doctors appt for my post op for my nose (well for all of it but mainly my nose).

He did the normal check that they do... say ahhhhh, checked ears etc.

He said everything looked great and asked me a few questions.

I explained that my nose (sinuses) were causing me more pain and problems than my throat... He said that is unusual (but I always like to do things backwards).

He then began explaining how I was going to be able to breathe again by the end of this appt.... I knew what that meant.... more sinus cleaning and I was not happy. He did some initial cleaning by pulling out a few clots of drainage. (It was completely gross... blood, puss and mucus.... the size of a dime). He pulled out about 3-4 on each side then explained he would need to numb me up for the rest. He also said after seeing this, he knew why I was having such problems breathing and with pressure.

He came back in a few minutes later and continued cleaning... suctioning, tweezers, and all kinds of fun stuff.

The part that shocked me most was when he pulled out the stints. (I had no clue there were stints even in my nose). They were plastic and they were huge like 2

 inches long by .5-1 inch tall. Ummm no wonder my nose was hurting. 

After he was all done, I was so relieved. I could breathe through my nose, and it felt like a miracle.

I cannot wait for tonight when I may actually be able to sleep.

Thanks again for all the prayers.

Update

Well, as many of you have read, I had surgery last Thursday.

When I got home that night, I was pretty groggy and miserable. Honestly that hasn't changed a whole lot.

The first 3-4 days my nose was killing me. I could not breathe at all without using my mouth which dried my throat out and caused even more pain. 

Now, 4-5 days in, my nose is still driving me crazy although it is not draining constantly like it was.

My throat has taken over as the main cause of my pain now.

I have stayed pretty strict on taking my pain meds every 4 hours per the advice of my doctor.

I have been able to eat Jello, Yogurt, a few bites of shake and a little ramen noodles...

I think I have lost over 5 pounds since the surgery because I have no desire to eat anything.

My day goes something like this.... 

Sleep a little

Wake up in pain

Realize it is too soon for pain meds

Try to sleep again

Play on the computer

Eat some Jello

Take a pain med

Go to  sleep

Wake up in pain

Flush my sinuses with Saline

and on and on and on......

I appreciate all the continued prayer!

Surgery Day

Well, today was the day of my surgery. I arrived at the surgery center around 2:15 p.m. this afternoon. 

Let me just start by telling you that I had to fast from midnight on, and that was a LONG time!

When I was checking in, they told me that I would for sure be having some work done on my sinuses :(

I think I handles this surgery better than any other. I trusted the doctor completely and I knew that in the long run this would make me feel much better (Well I am hoping anyways).

All gowned up and waiting on the IV.

 Kevin just had to take one with the awesome hat.... I am getting ready to have my IV :(

See how fast that smile left LOL This was right as I was waking up.

The doc came in and told me a little more about what happened.

Apparently at some point (not sure when), I had a trauma to my nose. The doc made it sound like I had broken my nose. That is one of the reasons I have been having so much trouble with my sinuses. That injury apparently tilted my Septum (??) and with small sinus openings already basically blocked any opening to may sinuses. So, they fixed this problem, widened my opening, and did a cleanse of my sinuses. Just to give you a disgusting idea of what that means.... They call it a roto-rooter for your sinuses :( That was all on top of getting my tonsils out. So I woke up with this gauze on my nose and I have to breathe through my mouth which stinks :(

 Kevin made me do the thumbs up even though I was in massive pain at this point.

After a change of my gauze, it bled through almost instantly when I stood up, I was on my way home.

We were at the surgery center for about 5 hours total.

 This is what my nose looks like under that gauze.... I don't know if you can tell but it is very swollen and bruised. It is bleeding so bad that I have changed the gauze about 8 times because it keeps bleeding through (all the drainage).... It has to go through 4 layers of gauze, but it only takes a few minutes :(

 I am in a ton of pain and still have to have the gauze... They say 2 or 3 days of draining. My throat hurts, but not nearly as bad as my nose and face where they did the sinus thing :( 

Oh and these are my tonsils.... They are supposed to be pink. All the white you see is infection.

I am not sure how big tonsils are supposed to be, but these were HUGE!!

Please pray for a quick recovery. I could sure use it, and my sweet kids would sure love to have their mommy back in action :)

First time skating

The kids got an award through their school for attendance. 

They got 2 hours of free skating with all their friends from school at a nearby skating rink.... 

A ton of kids from the school were there.

The cool thing about this skating rink is that you can ride scooters too.

Brittany and Alyssa gave up on the skate pretty quickly and moved onto the scooters.

Sorry the pics are blurry... They were going pretty fast.

 Kait really wanted to skate, but my arms were getting super tired from holding her up.

Luckily they have these awesome things you can rent to help kids learn to skate.

She was off and running skating with only the help of this contraption.

 Daddy helped Britt try to skate some

 Alyssa loved when daddy would push her super fast around the rink.

 A friend from Colorado was here with her kids, and Emily and Ian (my niece and nephew) were there because they go to the same school...Hailee and Emily riding scooters. Emily and Ian also gave up on skating rather quickly... even faster than Brittany. I tried helping them and tried letting them use Kait's contraption, but they just didn't like it.

 There's Ian and Nevaeh

My daytime kids were there too, but they were going way too fast for me to take any pictures.... At one point Braiden had Jasslynn on the scooter in front while he rode her around. It was so cute. Parker kept falling, but that did not stop him from "flying" around the rink!!