Lake Havasu Fun

We just got back from our vacation to Lake Havasu. We were there for a week. The first three days, we were with my parents. Then on Father's Day, they left and our friends came out. We had so much fun on the Lake riding the inflatables, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, swimming, and just hanging out. It was a lot of fun, but we are glad to be home. A week away is hard...we missed our dogs, our bed, our home, our friends who weren't there....and my cell phone. We get no cell service at the house and very limited on the Lake, so no calls! :( We, actually, Jason, lost my car keys at the bottom of the Lake. So somewhere, some fishy has my keys! But luckily, Liz and Charlie stopped by and got our extra set from home and brought them out to us. We tried to get a new one made out there, but they closed at 1 pm on Saturday and were going to be closed on Sunday, so it was just easier to just have them bring them out to us and then we have to go get one made so we have a spare.
But all and all, it was great fun. The kids had a blast. I will post more as I go through the over 500 pics I took and get the pics Heather took. As for now, I leave you with a pic of all 10 of the kids on the boat in front of London Bridge.

Summer Vacation

Sumer vacation is finally here for the entire family...well almost. Jason has only one more night of work before his four week vacation! So as of 9:00 A.M. Sunday morning, our entire family will be on summer vacation......except me. I don't get a vacation. I still have to do everything I usually do, just hopefully not so early.
But speaking of early. Since the kids have been on vacation for over a week now, I still have not gotten a decent night's sleep. Its either the phone ringing at 7 A.M., someone at the door at 7:15 A.M. or the kids jumping all over me in bed, wanting something to eat, drink, or to tattle on each other! Needless to say, I'm exhausted!!!!! I can't seem to get to sleep easily at night when Jason isn't home, so hopefully after tonight, I can rest easier.
Back to vacation....we have some fun and some not so fun things planned for the next four weeks. First priority is for Jason to finish the dog house for our two dogs. We just finished cross fencing the yard to keep them off the grass when we aren't home, since Jetta has decided that no matter if we take her out to pee two minutes before letting her on the grass, she still has to mark her territory. So, to save our grass, a fence went up and the dogs went out....so now they need more shade for the back yard, hence a new dog house big enough for both of them. That has to be completed by Wednesday! Then its off to the river house for some much needed away time. We are going with my parents for a few days, then they are leaving to come back home and two families are coming out to join us. My mom and dad think we are crazy....six adults and TEN kids in their river house....and Aiden is the oldest kid. We will have kids ages 8, 7, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2, and 2 at the house. It should be lots of fun though. All the kids get along great and the boat can hold us all. So we will be trying out all our new toys we talked my dad into buying last year. I think we now have 6 different inflatables, two sets of adult skis, two wake boards, two knee boards and a kids horseshoe ski. We are most looking forward to using the new UFO inflatable! It is going to be a riot! Ari is looking forward to skiing again. Last year she got up a few times and enjoyed it. This year she wants to try to get up more and maybe graduate to the next step up of skis.....which we will have to talk grandpa into getting. (Shouldn't be hard to do...all the kids gotta do is ask him!).
Then when we come back, its on to the not so fun stuff. I need to have a shunt study performed at Loma Linda sometime on Jason's vacation. They are going to try and figure out why my shunt has stopped working for me. I am hoping it won't be too painful, but I know it will be. It includes yet another lovely spinal tap and inserting dye into my spine to see where it is going....through the shunt, or though my spine....and to see if there is a kink or something restricting the flow. Then Jason has some not so fun stuff to do as well.....all I'm going to say about that is that hopefully a baby will be joining our family sometime next summer! (June or July is our hope!!!!)
Well, I guess that is all for now. It's off to drop the kids off at grandma and grandpas for swimming and onto a baby shower for me.

My three smart little cuties

Well, school is almost out for the summer....which translates to a lot of time for mommy to spend at school the next two short weeks helping out as much as possible and being there for every little thing. But three big things happened over the past two days. All three of the school-age kids got awards! They were all so excited and proud. Jason, my mom, and I attended all three separate assemblies. Noah's was first: Monday morning at 8:00 am. Yes, 8:00 am. He received a Certificate of Achievement for academic excellence. (Just to add a bit, his teacher made sure she stressed that no matter what anyone said, she knows he was ready for kindergarten and did so great. He was in the top group in his class! Way to go Nutty-Butt-Butt!) Then Aiden's awards started at 9:20 am. It was a waste to go home just to turn around and come back, so we sat in the science pod and chatted (well, my mom and Jason did, Jinelle and I went into Aiden's class) Aiden received the Principal's Award. He was so proud. Only one student per class gets this, and it was him! Then on Tuesday (Today) at 8:40 am, Ari had her awards assembly. She received a Certificate of Achievement for Math. I was surprised....she likes math and is great at it, but she excels at reading. But I guess since she got a reading award the first trimester, her teacher wanted to recognize her for Math as well. She is such a smart little girl.
So now the next 5 school days left will go way to quickly. I am sad but excited. Sad to be leaving Eucalyptus. It really has been a great school. I LOVE my kids teachers this year. I wish they would come with us over to Cypress.....and I have been working on them...probably as much as they are working on me to get me to stay. But on the other hand, I get to sleep in for the next two months. Then when they go back, they will be at their new school, learning piano and art, and Spanish (Spanish is the one thing I could do without....but am most excited about Piano).
The next few days are filled with the following activities:

• All three the kids have a yearbook signing party tomorrow.
• Aiden has his Multiplication Sundae party on Thursday (he past all his tests! All multiplication from 0 - 12 memorized!!!)
• Friday and Monday are NO SCHOOL! But I will be babysitting.....at 5 am.
• Tuesday is Noah's Kindergarten Carnival, A baby shower at 11:30, and babysitting.
• Wednesday is Field day (depending on how I am feeling I will be helping with Kindergarten kids for this...and depending on if I have the baby again) Then I have my 6 week post-op check-up. I believe I have to have a spinal tap at this appt. (UGH!!!!)
  
• Thursday, depending on my appt the day before, I will be at school helping not one, or two, but three class parties.
• Friday....SLEEP! (Hopefully!!!!)

So, thats all for now. I need to get some rest. I will try to fill you all in on what's going on medically with me as soon as I know more. As of now, all I know if that my Shunt MAY have stopped working. We won't know for sure until I get it checked out. Don't know exactly what all that entails, but it doesn't sound fun!

Update

Hey all! Just a quick update. I am getting better. Each day is a little bit better. I still can't do everything I used to do, but I am doing more and more. I can definitely tell the difference. The pressure in my head is lower. If I do too much, then I have to lay down, because the down side to this shunt is that I get low pressure headaches. BUT unlike the high pressure ones I had before, I actually can get rid of these really easily!!!! Thank you everyone who was praying for me!
All the family is doing great. Only about 4 weeks left of school. I can't believe how fast the year went by. I will only have Jinelle home all day starting in the summer. Noah will be going into 1st, Ari into 2nd, and Aiden into 4th; all at a new school. We will be transferring all three kids to a Parents Choice School, Cypress Academy. This was a very hard decision for me. I finally left it up to the kids. All three want to go to the new school. I love Eucalyptus, but this new school has piano starting in 1st grade, as well as spanish. It is an Arts school. Almost all the kids friends from church and most of their school friends will be going to Cypress as well.
Well, that's all I have time for right now. I will be sure to try to keep everyone updated more often, now that I am feeling better. Ari's birthday is our next big event, so I will post pics asap of her party!!!

Surgery on Tuesday

Just a Quick note to let you all know, I will be going in for surgery on Tuesday. My neurosurgeon will be placing a LP Shunt in my spine to drain the excess CSF in my head. I will have to get used to the low pressure instead of the high pressure and may have low pressure headaches for a while, but it is a lot safer for me; safer for my vision, my brain, my hearing, my sanity. So, I find out at about 1 pm on Monday what time I need to be at Loma Linda on Tuesday for Surgery. Jason and my mom will be with me up until I get wheeled in and will be able to come see me as soon as I am coherent. Heather is taking on the huge task of watching all four of the kids. (I owe her big time!!!!) I should be able to come home Tuesday night, as long as all goes well. Thanks for the continual thoughts and prayers.

My Life Lately

Well, Our family has had our fair share of trials this past few weeks. Today is the first day in a week that I am actually up and out of bed! And oh, how hard has it been. But I know that our family has been blessed and that I have had so many prayers offered for me. I have been able to feel all the love and support of my family and friends.
We are very lucky. The outcome could have been a LOT worse. The news the doctors could have given us, and initially did, was devastating, but my friends were there to love and support me. And thanks to a Priesthood blessing and the spirit telling me not to trust the doctor, we found a new specialist who looked over all my cat scans and MRI and has cleared up so many unanswered questions. We know that the love and prayers of family and friends was what got us through this past week. I don't know what I would have done if it hadn't been for those who didn't let me say no to meals, who took my kids, who called to just check up on me, and those who fasted and prayed for me. Thank you to all of you.
To everyone else who has no idea what I am talking about, I will clarify.
About 6 months ago I started having really bad headaches. My Primary Care Physician said I was having stress headaches, and gave me medication to take when I got them. But they were daily and the drugs knocked me out, so I couldn't take them and leave the four little ones unattended while Jason worked, so I just dealt with them and went on with my life. Then I started getting dizzy and almost falling down, having to catch myself a few times. It was a few times, but got more and more frequent. But I let it go, because I had other things to do. My life had to go on. Then I went for my annual eye exam (thank goodness for great insurance!) and my wonderful eye doc saw that I had bilateral pappiledema. He sent me over to my doctor, who sent me stat to a Neurologist. I went the next week for a CT and it came back normal. GREAT NEWS! Just go to the hospital, they were waiting for me, so they could do a spinal tap! NOT! 10 hours later and another CT and now I had a brain tumor. So I was sent home and had to wait a day and a half for a MRI. The next morning, the doctor says, well, I can't tell if there is anything wrong, so just go sit back at the hospital. I told him no, and got myself a new doctor. So I went last Wednesday to Loma Linda to a Neurosurgeon who is supposed to be the BEST! He went over all my tests, since I was smart enough to get copies of everything, and he decided that it looked like I just had too much pressure in my head. He did a spinal tap to test my pressure. BINGO. My pressure was 33! (A normal pressure is between 12 and 15) so I had 32 cc's of spinal fluid drained to take some pressure from my head. (I was told it is called pseudotumor Cerebri, it presents as a brain tumor, when really it is just pressure with no reason why. They can't tell me why it is happening)) But, it gave my head a worse headache....a different type of headache. And I had to lay flat on my back from Wednesday until Sunday. So Easter was spend in bed. I ate a baked potato on the couch that night. I Haven't had much of an appetite, thanks to the medication I am on. (Hey, I've lost 14 lbs, so I can't complain! Another few months on this medication and I should be at my college weight!) Today I was able to take my kids to school, accompanied by my personal chapperones, Jay and Jinelle. I still am quite dizzy and my head hurts a lot so I can't be alone . I sucks, but it is much better than a brain tumor. I may have to have surgery to help solve the pressure problem. There is two possible surgeries, but I have to go see another specialist first before I decide. Until then, it is spinal taps every few weeks and a lot of time in bed. My next spinal will be on April 2nd, just 2 weeks after the first!
So, Thats my life lately. Thanks for the continued prayers and help from all! I love you all and don't know what I'd do without all my friends and family!

TAGGED! 5 Random or Weird Facts About Me

I've been tagged thanks to my dear friend Liz. Here's the rules: Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you. Post the rules on your blog. Post 5 random or weird facts about yourself on your blog. Tag 4 people and link to them. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

1. I love green M&M's. I will eat all the other colors first and save them for last. And if my kids have a bag of M&M's and offer me some, I make sure I get green ones! They taste so much better. And red is my least favorite, so I eat those first. (I actually have a color order for all the M&M's- Red, Brown, Yellow, Orange, Blue, and then finally GREEN!)

2. I hate when somebody squeezes the toothpaste in the middle. I always squeeze from the bottom.

3. I collect Precious Moments Figurines. I have tons and can tell you exactly when and why I got a certain figurine and most of the time, who gave it to me. I only buy those with meaning to me.

4. I get up and make my kids breakfast almost every morning, and not just cereal. I love making pancakes, waffles, French toast, eggs, Cinnamon toast, etc. And if one kid wants one thing and another wants a different thing, I will make it for them....but only for breakfast. Dinner is a different story. Whatever I make, is what they eat, or at least try.

5. I hate when things aren't planned out. I love planning in advance and not waiting for the last minute. (Not that spontaneous things are fun every now and then, but the big things). If I could, I would plan for next Christmas on New Years.

Now, I tag 4 friends: Amy, Christina, Brenda, & Stephan