Trip to Burley

We went to Burley last weekend.  John had the whole week off for Fall Break.  John's sister Lindsey and her fiancé were here the first part of the week and we did some fun things with them--went to Thanksgiving Point Gardens and swimming at their hotel.  We don't get to see Lindsey very often so it was really fun.  Mary had a great time playing with Aunt Lindsey.  She brought both Mary and Anna some cute clothes and a really neat art kit for Mary.  We left Thursday morning to go to Burley.  I don't think there is anything in the world that Mary likes more than going to Idaho to visit Grandma Sue and Grandma Melody.  Somebody to play with her 24/7.  We went to a pumpkin patch in Oakley with Grandma Sue, Aunt Natasha and Cousin Kyler.  Mary and Kyler are great friends and always have a fun time together.  I came downstairs to find them jumping off the bed in their underwear.  Good times.  So at the pumpkin patch there was a haunted house, which both Mary and Kyler were afraid of, a hay bale maze, a corn maze, a hay ride, a putting station and bean bag toss.  We all rode on the hay wagon through the patch to find our pumpkins.  Later that day John went on a bike ride with his dad and brother so the girls and I stayed with Grandma Melody, Aunt Brook and Aunt Tylynn.  Mary got to play and play and play and Anna was sick so I had to just hold her and watch Brook and Tylynn make some really cute hair things for us.  Poor baby girl Anna had a rough week.  We also went over to Aunt Brook's new house where she and Mary made play-do!  Everyone was so nice to make sure we had a good time.  When we were at the grocery store Mary saw a Rapunzel costume and Grandma Sue got it for her.  She's worn it so much since that it's been ripped twice.  Mary wears the costume and puts a jumprope around her neck to make Rapunzel's long hair.  Brook gave us the Tangled soundtrack so Mary listens to it constantly and acts out the whole movie.  She's quite the actress.  It's amazing how she memorizes all the words to the songs, plus the lines in the movie.

We had Stake Conference today, but I was so sick that we didn't go.  It gave John the chance to play Tangled all day with Mary.  Baby girl said dada  all day long, except for when she was whining--which was quite a bit.  I sure hope she gets a tooth soon and that's where the whining is coming from!  We are getting excited for Halloween.  Mary is going to be a witch and Anna is going to be Love-a-lot Bear.

Mary and her cousin Kyler

Sick

I need to update on the past week or so--we went to Burley over last weekend, but I am sick and will have to do it later.  Anna has been sick all week so I didn't do it earlier.  Funny we don't have the same thing though.  It looks like she had Roseola and started feeling better just today after being sick since Saturday.  And I got sick yesterday with what seems to be a sinus infection.  Thankfully Mary and John are still okay though.  One funny thing Mary said though.  We were at Grandma Shirley's and Mary was playing while I was talking to my grandma.  I was talking about the gas fireplace.  At some point during the conversation my grandma said, "for crying out loud," which she says a lot.  So then Mary came up to me and said, "Mom, were you crying at the gas station?"  I guess as she was playing she picked out a few words from our conversation and that's what she came up with in her mind.

Mary says the funniest things...

I've got to start writing down the things that Mary says as soon as she says them.  I try to remember them all, but pretty soon I've forgotten how many I'm supposed to be remembering and then I've lost some.  To make sure that we don't lose sight of Anna though, she just keeps getting cuter and cuter.  She's been clapping her hands lately and is very active.  I'm wondering if she's figured out that she can move around more than she has been, but just hasn't figured out how.  She's also very vocal--laughing, squealing, saying mama mama and giggling with Mary.  It's a wonderful for moment for me when my girls are looking at each other and giggling together.
Here goes trying to remember.  Let's see, on Sunday Mary didn't want to go to church (although she doesn't want to do anything when she's playing).  She was reluctant to go to nursery, but once there seemed fine so I left.  Awhile later her teacher brought her to me because she had to go potty.  I came out and she looked so happy and excited.  We went to the bathroom and while Mary was going she said she had to hurry and go potty so she could get back to her class because it was almost over.  She said this a few times so I said, do you get to do something fun at the end?  And she simply said no, but you have to come and get me.  Later that day John's sister Lindsey was coming over for dinner and bringing her fiancé, Claude, whom we had not yet met.  So Lindsey walked in first and Mary came running up to the door when Claude walked in.  (Claude is a little bit older than all of us).  Mary took one look at him and said to Lindsey, "Is that your grandpa?"  Fortunately they were both very good natured about it.  The only other one I can remember at the moment isn't a good one.  She yelled at the people behind us in line at Walmart.  She was in a mood and they started putting their stuff on the conveyor belt.  She yelled, "You can't put your stuff up there until we're done!"  It was embarrassing.  Other than that she is in this phase where she wants to wear a dress all the time.  But she doesn't say I want to wear a dress, she says, "I need to wear a dressing gown."It's funny, but it's getting old.  I know there's more, but that's all I have right now.

Injured List

Just a couple of pictures I took this week.  I still can't figure out how to format this the way I want so it just looks random.  It's been quite the week.  It seems like it should be Saturday and yet it's only Thursday.  It's been rough because the weather is starting to turn and every time we're about to go to the park it rains--Mary doesn't handle disappointment very well. And I can tell myself that she has been harder to handle because we've had to be inside a little more and she's restless, but I don't really think this is the case.  It's hard because sometimes she is as sweet and helpful as she can possibly be and then...she's not.  I know she's 3, but it's really hard to think about that in the moment.  Tonight she was super sweet.  I was walking home from a ladies house down the street with the baby in my arms when their neighbors dog attacked me.  Luckily it was a small dog.  It bit me 3 times on the upper leg.  I think it was going for the baby because I remember having to lift her up and turn away from the mean dog.  Anyway, when we got home Mary gave me a cookie she had made while I was gone and told me it would make me feel better.  "Are you okay sweetie?  This cookie will make you feel better."  Fortunately the baby didn't seem as traumatized as I was.  I was thinking all the way home I was going to have to go get a shot, sure that I was bleeding down my jeans that I can finally fit into after being pregnant.  But turns out the jeans were thick enough that the bite didn't break the skin and I just have bruises.  And John just called on his way home from playing basketball and said he just sprained his ankle.  I guess we're on the injured list.

This one's about me

This past week I realized how horribly out of shape I am.  I knew I was out of shape, but it's a lot worse than I thought.  My mother in law very kindly gave me her Zumba work out DVD's because she knows I really love to exercise, but can't get out to do it much with the kids.  So I tried one of the DVD's.  It was ok, but it did cause some pain (I'll get to the source of the pain shortly).  The next night John and I decided to do a P90X workout.  It didn't go very well.  Needless to say it was pretty discouraging.  The most discouraging part about it though isn't that I'm just in bad shape.  It's that the pain is preventing me from being able to do the whole workout so that I can get into better shape.  It's not that I can't do all of the repetitions because I get to tired or winded.  I can't do all of the exercises because the pain stops me.
When I was pregnant with Mary I got an inguinal hernia, not uncommon.  After she was born it went away.  No problem.  When I was pregnant with Anna it came back.  And I got one on the other side as well.  This time they were bothering me.  We decided to wait until after she was born to see if they would go away again, and then we could decide if I needed surgery to repair them.  Unfortunately Anna's birth didn't go all that well.  The c-section seemed to go fine.  It wasn't planned like Mary's was (Mary was breach so I had to have a c-section and chose not to try a v-bac).  In fact, Mary's 3rd birthday party was scheduled for that afternoon.  On the morning of the party I woke up early with pain.  Went to the hospital to check it out hoping it would be fine to come home and have the party.  I wasn't in labor yet, but they said it could be the start of it.  Went home.  Was there for about 15 minutes when a new, horrible pain in my back started.  Within another 10 minutes it hurt so bad I was crying so John took me to the hospital where the pain was so bad all I could do was lay there and moan, cry and throw up every few minutes.  They figured it was a kidney stone and fluid around my kidney and the only way it would go away was to have the baby.  So they gave me a shot of demorol and we headed to the other hospital where my doctor was (it was about 30 minutes from our home).  Poor Mary's party was cancelled.  Thankfully Grandma Sue was there and she didn't seem to notice too much.  Anyway, the c-section was around 6pm.  Anna came out weighing 6 pounds 7 ounces.  Small compared to Mary who was 7 pounds 8 1/2 ounces.  She was breathing a little fast so they put her on oxygen or something...I'm really not sure because that's when I started to go downhill.  After they sewed me up I never stopped bleeding.  I was losing quite a bit of blood.  They had to give me 6 units of blood in a transfusion.  But they couldn't figure out why I was still bleeding and couldn't get it to stop.  The pain was great.  I continued to have contraction after contraction.  I was on morphine, but it didn't seem to touch the pain.  I don't remember seeing Anna or holding her.  That makes me sad.  The next day they decided they had to cut me back open and search for the cause of the bleeding. They did so, found it and were able to save my uterus (the doctor told me beforehand that there was a good chance I would have to have a hysterectomy).  There was large amounts of pain after this double surgery, but then I started to heal and about 2 months after I was doing well enough to start jogging a little bit (obviously Anna was ok and was able to go home the same time as me).  At some point I realized that the hernias were not gone this time.  I went back to the doctor and he said they needed to be repaired.  I chose to do it right away.  It's been about 2 months now and it still hurts.  I went back to the doctor 2 weeks ago and he said that the surgery had been difficult because of my previous surgeries and he said I could wait for 2 to 3 months to see if the pain goes away or go back into surgery and he would cut the nerve that he "thinks" is causing the pain.  So that is why it hurts to exercise and why it is discouraging.  I don't know when or if the pain will go away.  I know it sounds like I'm a whiner and just feel sorry for myself and maybe I am and do.  But I do know that I am lucky to be alive and that Anna was healthy.  I also know that there are many others who live with much worse.  It's just discouraging right now.  Eventually I will be back to normal.  I know this post was long, but I have a lot of backtracking to do.  I'll try to make it shorter next time.

I've done a bad thing

The day after we moved into our new place was a Sunday.  Unfortunately we had a lot of things that needed to be done and seemed to be first priority.  We hadn't unpacked at all and the dryer wasn't working yet and neither was the fridge.  I was feeling a little panicked because with John in law school he is barely home during the week and I knew I wasn't going to be able to get much done with the girls to take care of. So we were working to get as much done as we could with every intention of going to church at 1.  We even got all dressed to go.  But right when it was time to leave John had to go and get a part from the store to fix the dryer (some may think that it is not essential to have the dryer working right away, but in my case it's a must), the baby was crying and needing a nap and Mary was crying because she was exhausted and traumatized from being up late from the move and leaving Grandma Shirley's house where she had grown accustomed to being.  So we never went to church.  As the end of the day grew near Mary asked when we were going to church.  I picked the worst way to answer her and said that we didn't have time to go to church that Sunday, but we would always go after that.  So now, every Sunday she asks, "do we have time to go to church today?"  I really don't know how to explain that we always have time to go to church because that is really all we are supposed to actually do on Sunday.   We already didn't go one week and I had to say that we didn't have time to go.  And Mary has the best memory of anyone I know.  She will never forget.