Anxiously Awaiting

I have to admit I am nervous. With every passing day I am becoming more anxious about an upcoming surgery or two. Having another section of my liver removed was not something I had been planning on, but at the suggestion of several of my doctors, surgery seems to be the preferred treatment over radiation.

The last surgery to my liver was an awful, frightening experience that has haunted me often over the past 5 years. With my fears and trepidation in mind, Dr. Fairbanks has reassured me this surgery will be less invasive. I will meet with Dr. Holbrook tomorrow to discuss the surgery and am hoping that the procedure can be done simply.

As if a one part drama isn't enough, this latest development has a second act: my thyroid. The lastest PETScan showed some activity in my thyroid and the tumor board is concerned it may be a tumor. On Wednesday I will have an ultra-sound of the area and then meet with another surgeon who I'm sure will propose to partially remove the thyroid.

I literally feel like I am being taken apart, piece by piece. I'm going to have to instate a quid pro quo saying if you taken something out, you must replace it with something more fun. I'd love some squishier boobies, for example!

Happy Mama

What a happy Mother's Day (3 day celebration) for me! The children at Jolinda's made us wonderful goodies and we joined the pre-schoolers for a delicious brunch that included fantastic crepes. Yum. Katherine painted the flower pot blue because she is absolutely convinced it is my favorite color. Anyway, the marshmallow flowers are so adorable. Giant marshmallows are skewered, the tops dipped in colored white chocolate and then topped with skittles--they look like cute tulips.

On Saturday we shopped with our friends for flowers, trees and shrubs. Part of my Mother's Day present was 3 giant Cypress trees that will provide much need privacy and color to the yard. Working in the yard for 6 hours straight planting the purchased greenery in addition to planting my garden was probably a mistake and I had a very hard time getting out of bed the next morning.

Mother's Day was lovely (except for the aforementioned pain). I played the organ in church and taught Relief Society and then rushed home to make desserts and a fabulous salad for dinner. We were invited to a delicious roast beef dinner at our friends' house where we shared our salad topped with Greg's honey mustard dressing. He's perfected that recipe! After dinner we joined my sisters and their families for dessert which was the pound cakes and strawberries we had made earlier. Of course it was topped with real whipped cream and we polished off all 4 loaves.

How blessed I am to be a mother. Nearly 6 years ago I was given the greatest gift when we were chosen to adopt our precious daughter. Being a mom has brought me so much joy and I cannot imagine my life without my beautiful girl.

Daddy-Daughter

After evenings such as tonight it is nice to remember times like these:

Greg and Katherine on 9/12/08 and her chocolate sauce imitation of her daddy's goatee.

The evening started out lovely and calm, and it was so cute when Katherine said, "Daddy, you are so handsome!" How darling is that? But then I asked Greg to wash Katherine's hair since 4 of my fingers are wrapped in band-aids and stinging because of bleeding splits in the skin. The calm atmosphere in our home deteriorated rapidly from the moment the shampoo was poured on that poor, pitiful head. Talk about weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and that was from both of them! Katherine's screams of "I want mommy" were followed by Greg's stern direction to "just close your eyes." Call me an optimist, but I really thought the situation would resolve without me having to leave the coziness of my comforter. I was wrong. Greg was completely frustrated and Katherine nearly puked after inhaling sudsy water.

Alas, all was right and lovely again even before her hair was driy. Soon, daddy was performing magic tricks for the gullible little girl and we were laughing hysterically together. A moment of fun was followed by family prayer, hugs and kisses.

Isn't it so cute that they have matching eyebrows?

Task Time

Helping Katherine complete her tasks took too much time and two too many adults.

First, Katherine had to practice writing her name. She traced and then wrote. Her first attempt was the best and took about 2 minutes. Completing the rest of the tries took almost 30 minutes, a couple of buckets of tears and a couple dozen threats/bribes.She was so angry about me taking a picture of her throwing a fit and said people will laugh at her with her "naughty" face. Moments later she is all smiles while completing the task of emptying the silverware tray and perfectly happy to have her picture taken. This job took about 4 minutes to complete.

Does anybody else see the problem with the time taken to complete these tasks? Greg and I are baffled that it takes 8 times as long to write her name a few times than to stack forks, knives and spoons.

Easter Joy

What a beautiful Easter weekend! We spent time together as a family engaged in fun traditions, relaxing in our beautiful home as the winds blew outside, and feeling peace as we listened to the counsel of the Lord as spoken by our latter day prophets and apostles.

We decorated Easter Eggs and cleaned the house. I even taught Katherine how to scrub the toilets and iron her own shirts. She self-appointed herself to be my ironing assistant and stood by my side for nearly two hours spritzing the wrinkled clothes. When an item was finished, she then exchanged it out for another piece of apparel from the basket. She was such a great helper. As I ironed, we talked about what the apostles and other leaders were instructing and teaching us.

Saturday evening we attended the Eibert family's traditional flashlight egg hunt (incredible yummies included) with several other families from our ward. This is the second year we were invited, and Katherine absolutely loves the thrill of running through the school fields with a flashlight, searching for pastel plastic eggs filled with treats. What a fun tradition!

Before Conference began and in between sessions, Greg, Katherine and I worked together to make and prepare orange rolls, holiday potatoes, spiral honey glazed ham, asparagus, strawberry pretzel salad, and pound cake with strawberries and cream--all for the Easter feast we were hosting for my family. I really enjoy being able to have my family at our house for dinner since we regularly gather at my mom and dad's place. I think my mom enjoys the break from hostessing duties even though she is the ultimate hostess and loves to entertain. We had a lovely time together and events such as these remind me of how blessed I am to have my loved ones so near me.

A Helping Hand

This evening as I emptied the dishwasher, Katherine ran to my side to lend a helping hand. She exclaimed, "Mom, you don't have to do all the work by yourself--I'm going to help you. You just sit back and I'll take care of this (the silverware)." She took great care to make sure all the utensils were clean and stacked all the silverware neatly in the tray.

Little does she know she has earned herself another job on her chore list (and some brownie points with mom and dad).

Hisss

This is the funnest game. Grandma gave the game to Haylie for her birthday and Katherine enjoyed it so much that we went out and bought it today. The object of the game is to combine the drawn cards into snakes according to colors, combine sections and then add completed snakes to your pit. When you complete a run with its head and tail, you announce "hiss" and then take all the cards. Katherine came up with a little snake dance while she hissed and that was pretty cute.

Spring Break-ing

Our first real springbreak and I am expecting too much I think. In anticipation of the break, I began creating a TO DO LIST of home improvement projects, cleaning, and activities. Now on the eve of the big week, and I'm not very sure I will actually get anything done but RELAX. Except for a few make-up lessons, I am not teaching this week and I am caught up on all of the office work for Simply Gourmet, so I don't have any excuses. The pile of books next to my bed does look awfully appealing. . .

Healthcare Heartburn

I haven't had this kind of political heartburn since the 2000 Presidential Elections. Back then I checked news websites for updates on a regular basis, I listened to talk radio all day long and then tuned into Fox News the moment I got home from work. I listened to anything that would be give me a sense of hope that the election would be resolved, the chads would be counted and Bush would be the winner.

(Insert any Bush joke here>>>>> The bigger joke would have been Gore)

Anyway, the point is that I felt my choices and freedoms were related to who controlled Washington.

Now, with the atrocious Obamacare being passed, I feel that Washington has intruded into a part of my life that I feel very sensitive about: my health. Living with a chronic illness for 8 years has made me very selfish and all I can think about is how the quality of care will decline, research and development will be underfunded, and I will not have access to experimental and cutting edge treatments. In a sense, I feel the bill will make me more ill in the end.

A bigger point is what this means to us as Americans. Who are we? What kind of country do we have? Where are we headed? Whatever it once was is no longer and this country has taken a giant step into the entitlement trough. The problem with entitlement is that it is the disease that kills exceptionalism.

For any of you out there that have guilt and self-loathing about America and its exceptionalism must not have children, or do have children and regularly smoke pot. Parents (who care) do everything in their power to raise children to strive in school, excel in extracurricular activities, be the cutest in the class, have lots of friends, etc. Parents on Pot (in this case, people in America who are ashamed of its exceptionalism) don't take score at soccer games, worry about self-esteem and just want their kids to feel happy and fulfulled without making any effort or doing any work.

Okay, so maybe you're not really smoking pot, but it probably wouldn't matter if you did because your brain is whacked. Seriously. You are just dehydrated, lacking basic fundamental principles this country was founded on. What you need is detox by getting back to the moral and political basis this country was founded on. We, collectively as Americans, need to rediscover that revolutionary spirit willing us to break from our oppressor, the pioneering spirit that calls us to adventure, opportunity and challenge.

Maybe that's what we need right now is a way, a method, to become modern day revolutionary pioneers???