Surgery Time!

Well, the time had come!  It was time for me to have my surgery.  I had waited so long for it and just wanted my cancer out of me.  Then the moment came.  On January 17, 2013 I had my double mastectomy and all of my lymph nodes removed on my right side.  Five years ago, when I started to have all of these cancer scares, I told Don the minute I had breast cancer I wanted a double mastectomy.  I am a no nonsense girl, and I don't play!  Especially when it comes to cancer.  So the time had come, time for surgery.  Unfortunately, with our insurance we can't really choose our doctors.  I get who I get.  Amazingly, my surgeons were awesome!!!!   As I was wheeled into the operating room I thought I would totally be freaking out.  I wasn't.  I was totally calm.  I kept myself focused and calm.  There was a med student in the operating room.  He was just standing there as they worked around me.  You could tell he was totally uncomfortable.  He was trying to make small talk, but honestly, what do you say to a woman who is about to have a mastectomy?  I felt bad for him.  My doctor who is doing the reconstruction leaned down to me and said, "Who do you think is more nervous, you or Don?"  I said I really didn't know.  That was the last thing I remembered.  I woke up 4 1/2 hours later a changed person.  Physically changed.  Maybe a bit stronger for having to go through this.  The nurses commented on how good things went and how good the two surgeons did!  What do I know?  When I took a look at myself, it isn't what I thought it would look like.  It doesn't look bad at all.  One of my doctors have reassured me, that in the end it will look fine.  After two days in the hospital I went home.  Ian came to get me.  He loved sitting in the bed with me and having ultimate control of the TV remote.  To him, the hospital isn't too bad.  Honestly, the hospital was wonderful.  I had the nicest people taking care of me and I don't have one negative thing to say about my stay at Spring Valley Hospital!  When I got home I saw this awesome sign that my kids made me!!!!  As I walked through the door Ian sang under this breath, "Mom's home, Mom's home!"  It is so good to be home!  This week I meet with my oncologist to see if I need more chemo.  Six of my lymph nodes tested positive for cancer, so I might need a little bit more.  At first I was upset about that, but heck,  I have come this far.  Let's make sure every bit of cancer is gone!!!!  I will also be starting radiation soon.  I will find out more this week! 

 

This Sunday I showed my Sunday School class this video.  I love this talk.  So many tender mercies have been given to my family.  The women of my church who brought in meals for my family.  The hometeacher who came to give me a blessing with my husband.  The friends who drove my kids to school.  The dance moms from Aubrey's dance team who drove her places and brought us lunch.  The kind notes and phone calls.  My friend who worked at the hospital I was at, and visited me.  My other very awesome friend who took time from her busy life to visit me.  Austin taking care of things at home and sacrificing hanging out with friends so Don could be at the hospital or he would stay with me himself.  Aubrey and Ian being so understanding and loving.  Most of all, Don!!!  I don't have the words to express how grateful I am for him.  I could not have made it through this without him.  So many things, I am not even naming all of them.  I am so grateful.  I know the Lord's hand is in my recovery!  I am overwhelmed with all of the love and support from friends and family.  Thank you for the kindness you have shown to us!

Alabama Does It Again!!!!!!

The University of Alabama made it to another National Championship!!!!  After their loss to Texas A&M, I really didn't know if they were going to playing football for another national championship.  Ian was so sad. The reason we all love college football is because it can all change in an instant, and sure enough in one weekend, they were on top again.  They were playing Notre Dame for the championship and we all worried if they could do it again.  Sure enough Alabama squashed Notre Dame!!!  I mean killed them.  It was embarrassing.  I felt bad for Notre Dame.  It was bad.

At Don's work, the other Assistant Principal is from Connecticut and he is a huge Notre Dame fan.  There were some fun banter going on between Don and him.  We even printed up some things for Don to decorate his door.  Check out Don's banner in the background.  Don't worry, I found him a new one.  Don and his co-worker made a bet.  If Notre Dame won Don would have to wear a Notre Dame shirt.  If Alabama won, his co-worker would have to wear a Alabama shirt.  Don felt so bad about the loss, he didn't have the heart to make his co-worker wear an Alabama shirt.  It is all in good fun.

Here are the two Alabama fans of our family.  Notice the plate of cookies next to them!!!

It was a fun season.  Alabama did it again!  It was awesome and now I have two very happy family members!!!

Sunday School End Of The Year Breakfast

About a year ago I was called to teach Sunday School for the 12 year olds in my church.  In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a "calling" is a position or assignment in which members have been asked to serve or perform. Members are called of God to serve each other, and all callings are important. Callings are voluntary, are issued by the proper authority, and are usually for a few years.  Before this I was called as a nursery leader.  I loved teaching the 18 months - 3 year olds.  It was a huge blessing in my life!  Unfortunately, I also went through a bit of a depression during that time.  I continued to serve, but I was excited when I was asked to teach Sunday School!  I love teaching the youth and the children in church.  This group of kids were amazing.  They are awesome kids!  Teaching them blessed my life.  In a way, I feel like these kids saved me.  While I taught them in Sunday School, I found joy again.  The joy of going to Church and the joy of serving.  When I got sick people told me I would have to give up my calling.  People thought there was no way I could continue teaching while I had chemotherapy.  Even though there were Sundays I felt horrible, I was able to go to church and teach my class.  It was a huge blessing in my life.  So today my class came over for breakfast. Not all of them could make it.  We are missing four.  After breakfast we played video games.  It was great.  Tomorrow I will get a new group and a new start, but this class will always be special to me.

Time To Get The Trains Out!

The other day Ian wanted a friend to come over and Don wanted to get out some of the trains.  So Ian had his friend Ike come over.  It was the perfect choice!  I knew the minute Ian said he wanted Ike to come over and play with trains, it would be good!  Ike is the kind of kid that enjoys things like trains and can appreciate them. I was right.  The boys had a blast!  Don had fun too!  It was  good day.

When Ike left, Ian took some pictures of Dad!  Pretty funny!  We obviously love nerf guns!

Zombies vs. Humans

Once again, there was a nerf gun war during winter break.  This time it was Zombies vs. Humans.  There is a web site for it and all the kids that wanted to play had to register.  It was pretty legit!  They had a huge group playing, but only some of the kids went to the missions.  Every couple of days Austin (He was the moderator.) would plan missions for the humans and zombies.  The zombies had to tag humans,  but the humans could shoot zombies with nerf guns or rolled up socks.  It was crazy.  This year Aubrey also participated.  All was fine when Austin and Aubrey were both humans, but then Aubrey got tagged and became a zombie.  It was rough living with a human and zombie in the same house.  Austin and Don participated in the missions.  Ian loved that.  Then the last mission came.  I really thought that the zombies were done, but no!!!  We got a call from Austin that it was done, the zombies had won!  I really liked this nerf gun war better.  I felt more kids got involved in it.  I don't have a picture of all the kids that were in it.  This is a picture of the kids that showed up for the last mission.  The kids with bandannas on their heads are zombies.

Putting Joy Away

On New Year's Day we watched football and put away Christmas decorations.  Ian said to me, "You are just putting all the joy away!"  He looked so sad all day.  I know how he feels!  It makes me sad too, but I explained to him that if we had the decorations up all year, they wouldn't be special.  Ian is sure it would be!

The guys even got on the roof to take down the lights.  It took days to get all the lights up, and only minutes to take it all down.  Don't mind my messy windows!

I love when I get a new calendar. So fresh and new!

Then after a day of calendaring and getting it all organized, it looks like this...  Oh my!

New Year's Eve

We got a nice surprise the night before New Year's Eve.  The person who has taken our family pictures for years, Marissa Moss called me and told me that she got a new camera for Christmas and wanted to try it out.  She asked if Aubrey wanted to do a photo shoot in her dance clothes.  Of course Aubrey jumped at the chance to do this.  So on New Year's Eve morning Aubrey and I headed out to the Art District of Las Vegas to meet our friend.  Little did we know that she had two other photographers with her.  It was freezing cold.  Poor Aubrey just froze, but she never complained!  She just did what Marissa and her friends wanted her to do.  They kept telling her how pretty she was and how awesome these pictures were, man it was a girl's dream!!!  It sure made Aubrey feel special!!!  So for we have seen one of the pictures, it was amazing!   

Afterward I stopped and got Aubrey a Carmel Apple Hot Cider at Starbucks.  Then she went home, and fell asleep!  She was beat.

After she woke up and the laundry was done, we went to the Red Rock Casino to go bowling.  We love to do this.  It was so fun!  We didn't do very good, but we had fun.  Why are we always bowling next to professional bowlers?  It is crazy!!!  It makes us look even worse than we already are!  It was fun to spend time with each other before things got crazy.

Then Austin and Aubrey went to the regional dance.  Austin and his friends Tanner and Weston were asked to DJ the dance.  They worked so hard on it.  From what we hear it went really well.  They used Don's school's sound system, and Don knows a DJ that let the boys use some lights that he doesn't use anymore.  It looked really good.  Aubrey love the dance!  Austin had fun too.  Then they came back to the house after midnight and Austin cooked breakfast for some friends.

Don and I went to a friend's house to celebrate.  Ian and his friend Ethan got bored.  They wanted to come back to our house and play video games.  Don went back to the dance to help clean up.  So Ian, Ethan, and I rang in the New Year together.  We watched the fireworks on the strip and I did get a kiss from Ian.  They had fun! They told me that they are so grateful they survived the year.  You know, with the world suppose to be ending on December 21 and all!  Funny boys!

It was a fun night.

Ooops, I Forgot!

I forgot to post the kids official Christmas photo!  Don't they look cute.  I can't believe how grown-up they look!  We had a great Christmas!