Happy belated Easter!

Over Easter weekend (and the following week), my Mom and I went down to Idaho to visit my siblings and my adorable niece and nephew. We went down because my sister was having an ablation on her heart at a hospital in Salt Lake City and we drove her down for it. From what I understand, her heart had some cells that were not supposed to be there and they were causing problems with her heart rhythm. With the ablation, the doctors put a tube in her neck and one in each leg near the groin to go up and burn the rogue cells. It was an outpatient procedure and all went well. We took Lily with us for the week that we spent in the Salt Lake City and Lehi area. Logan had school so he couldn't come but she was so good the whole time. She entertained herself in the car singing nonstop, laughing, and talking. She didn't even ask for her mom and dad once! On the way back to her house in Boise she kept saying how she wanted to go back to Kristina's house or come with my Mom and I to our house. How cute! For the full album of pictures click here.

We all went to the park the first day in Idaho Falls (Saturday) to have a picnic and let the kids play and enjoy the SUN!!! This is the only picture I got of me and my siblings...just hanging out.



We set up an Easter egg hunt on Saturday for Logan and Lily. We hid little plastic eggs with M&Ms and jelly beans in them. This was the only candy they got because they didn't need anymore!



I was the first to get up Sunday morning. I made my way toward the bathroom and found that the two little cuties had drug a blanket into the hall in front of the bathroom door and were eating as much Easter candy as they desired since nobody was awake to stop them. I couldn't be the mean Aunt that tells them they have had enough so I took them into Kristina's room with me where I had slept the night before and let them sit on my air-mattress bed and eat candy. :)



They looked so cute all dressed for church!

Lily was so funny at Grandma Ann's house because she would get in her car seat in the entryway, buckle herself in and sing songs. I had to get it on video so here she is singing "Twinkle, twinkle little star". I think she got a little distracted in the middle of the song but she made up for it by her grand finale ending!

Happy (belated) Birthday!

My sweetheart of a husband turned 29 years old on the 17th! I would have gotten this post on sooner but I was down in Idaho and Utah. Better late than never! Unfortunately, we didn't get to celebrate Jaren's birthday together. I can imagine he was feeling pretty lonely. In honor of the birthday boy, I would like to boast about how wonderful he is!

Jaren is such a loving husband. He is always so patient and considerate of me and is very sweet and thoughtful. He is a very hard worker and likes to know and understand anything that will help him be a better soldier/worker. He loves good food, white water rafting, cruising, snorkeling, salt water fish tanks, having "guy time", and taking me on dates. He is a good dancer, loves to socialize, and loves to sing along with all of his favorite songs in the car...at the top of his lungs! :) When he gets up earlier than me, he will serve me breakfast in bed. He is so smart and seems to know so much more than me. I could go on and on because there is SO much I could say about him. I love him so much and am grateful he came my way and married me almost 6 years ago! Happy Birthday Jaren!



This is a picture of Jaren standing next to the city of "Glover" sign in Missouri. We drove all over the surrounding areas of Fort Leonard Wood when we were out there and found a town named Glover on the map. We spent a couple of hours driving out there only to find there was no population or anything other than this sign and some misterious factory/plant. But we got pictures in front of the sign anyway and I like this one :)

Foot Surgery

This post is mostly for my sister, Kristina, who is going to school to be a nurse. She just loves this gross medical/surgery stuff and wanted pictures so that's what this post is for.

I had a mild to moderate bunion on my right foot. What is a bunion you might ask...I didn't really know either. A bunion is an enlargement of bone or tissue around the big toe joint. It is most often caused by faulty mechanics of the foot (which is hereditary). The doctor explained that it has to do with the bone of the big toe being too long and the joint not in line with the middle toe joint how it is supposed to be. There's more to it I'm sure but wearing tight shoes can make it worse which I believe is what happened to me after wearing tight Army boots. Here is a picture of my foot before the surgery. You can see on the left side of my foot a bump around the joint of my big toe...that is the bunion. It causes pain when walking or exercising and especially when wearing high-heels. It also makes it very hard to find shoes that fit the extra width in the foot.



The surgery:
The procedure performed was a Chevron Type Bunionectomy. They basically shaved off the bunion and shortened my bone so the problem will hopefully not come back and my joint can heal normally. I was given a local anesthetic in my foot and then was given Monitored Anesthesia Care (MAC) which means I wasn't completely out. I did fall asleep for the first 30 minutes but was in and out after that (another 30 minutes). I did wake up hearing the drill and feeling the pressure on my foot. YUCK! I do remember asking to see my foot so they helped me lean up a bit to see it. Things were a little too fuzzy the first time I tried to look but I could see a little better by the time they got the stitches in. I was in and out of sleep until they wheeled me into the recovery area and I woke right up. I was ready for food and water since I had been fasting since midnight and got out of surgery around 2:30 pm. I scarfed down 3 packets of soda crackers (2 in each), 2 graham cracker packets (2 halves in each), a small container of chocolate pudding and 3 glasses of water. I was SO hungry and ready to get out of there.



My mom and sister were there to take me home and things were fine until I started taking the Percocet. I couldn't keep that down the first day so the doctor gave me another prescription called Darvocet. That started giving me pain in my chest and upper abdomen which was more pain than I had in my foot. I also had a huge headache so I stopped taking that too and just resorted to good ol' Ibuprofen.



Here is my foot all wrapped up after the surgery. Look at those swollen toes all covered in iodine! The first few nights were the most painful. I did cry a few times and realized I had to get up every hour to crutch up and down the hall for a bit to make the pain tolerable, then I could go back to bed.

I was able to stop using crutches one week after the surgery but was walking very funny in the post-surgery shoe shown below. It's stiff so I can't bend my foot and gives me a tiny bit of height which really just makes me feel like my leg is too long when my other foot is not wearing a shoe to match the height. I got the stitches out yesterday and my foot is getting better every day. Another week or so and I can get out of this dorky post-surgery shoe and just wear an athletic shoe. At six weeks (after the surgery) I will be able to start some vigorous walking and by eight weeks I should be running again.



I left out the really nasty looking pictures I took of my foot that show it all bruised when I got my first bandage taken off one week after the surgery. If you want to see those nasty pictures of a poor bruised foot with stitches and covered in Iodine as well as the rest of the pictures I've taken, click here.

Kings Firecrackers

The Kings Firecrackers Jump Rope Team is a group of girls from Warren County, Ohio. They are grade school to junior high school age in the Kings Local School District. This link below shows the team performing at the US Naval Academy for the Navy vs. Army Basketball half-time show. The crowd was going nuts! You have to watch this!

http://soonereyo.blip.tv/#1826380

Have a great day!