Overdue

I know that this post is long overdue. We have been so busy this summer that it seems like I never have time to sit down at the computer to update the blog. We spent the Fourth of July with Tim's folks (avoiding all the neighborhood fireworks here - maybe next year we'll stay home and let Ellie enjoy a sparkler or two). We've been spending a lot of time each day outside at the local parks, pools, and just playing in the front yard and alley. Ellie's big accomplishment is that she can pedal her trike by herself now. She figured it out last month while I was recovering from surgery and now it is hard to keep up with her!

I will be leaving Ellie overnight for the first time tonight. After Tim gets home from work I am heading south to go rafting tomorrow. Tim and Ellie will hold down the fort until I come home tomorrow night. I am halfway tempted to cancel my plans and stay home, but I am sure that they will be just fine without me!

Anyway, on the the pictures.

Ellie and Sebastian playing in the backyard:






Feeding the geese (4th of July):




At a wool market and llama, sheep,goat, etc show in a nearby mountain town:

Intentions...

I had fully intended on sitting down to update the blog right about now; however, we are having one of the biggest thunderstorms I've ever been in. In fact, I am keeping an ear out for the tornado sirens to start! (Mom, Grandma, etc don't worry - they rarely mean anything around here. I know that all of you Kansas relatives are thinking, "They worry about tornadoes there? I'll tell them about tornadoes!")

So instead of blogging, I am going to turn off and unplug the computer until the storm passes!

Recovering

It has been two weeks since my surgery and things went very well. I just got back all my biopsy results today and everything was good (no cancer, etc). My doctor did say that my uterus was not in very good shape and it was quite obvious that it was not functioning correctly. Based on what he told me I am glad we had decided not to have any more children after Ellie; I don't know if it would have been possible if we had wanted to, and quite possibly would have led to much disappointment. In the end, it seems as though surgery was the correct decision.

My recovery is going well and I just have a small amount of lingering tenderness. It was so nice to have my mom here to help out during my surgery and for a few days after. Tim's mom, Cheryl, came up and entertained Ellie for me when Tim went back to work. I had a few wonderful friends who brought us meals during the week after Cheryl went home. I've been so thankful for all the help!

Last Friday Tim and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. It is amazing to both of us that so much time has passed since we said our "I dos." Tim, Ellie, and I went out to a nice Japanese restaurant near our house to celebrate. Ellie tried sushi for the first time and was determined to use chopsticks instead of the silverware. We had a very nice time spending the evening as a family.

Here are a couple of quick pictures from a hike we took the weekend before my surgery. Ellie hiked the entire one mile loop on her own and just kept saying, "We're hiking in the for-ust (forest) Mommy and Daddy! I love the for-ust so much. It is my favorite." The pictures are in reverse order. As you can see, by the end of the hike we had to pull out the rain gear.

Countdown

Well, I feel like the countdown to surgery day has begun. I spent all day today cleaning the house - I figure it will be a couple of weeks before I feel up to doing that again. Tomorrow morning I go to the doctor for my pre-op appointment. After that, over to the hospital for blood work and other pre-surgery tests. Thursday my mom flies in and Ellie and I make the drive to the airport to pick her up.

Then it is the big day... I have to be at the hospital at 10:30 Friday morning and my surgery is scheduled from noon until 4:00pm. Tim is going to stay home with Ellie and my mom will drive me to the hospital and back. We figured that would be the least disruptive to Ellie's schedule, since the following days are going to be a bit confusing to her.

My mom will stay until Monday, and then Tim's mom has kindly offered to come stay with us for a few days once Tim has gone back to work. I am hopeful that the recovery will only take a week or so. My doctor is using the Da Vinci Robot for the procedure (if you are a Grey's Anatomy fan, this is the robot they show in the season finale) and it is supposed to dramatically reduce recovery time from a standard hysterectomy.

I'm a bit nervous, but overall I am excited to finally be rid of the constant pain (and other things I won't go into detail about!).

I have some great pictures from our recent trip to Idaho and some of a hike Tim, Ellie, and I went on last weekend. I will do my best to get them up before Friday!

So Much To Post, So Little Time

The blog has definitely gotten away from me the last few weeks. We have had so much going on here that I just haven't found the time to post! Sorry, no pictures yet again... the camera batteries were dead for awhile and now that they are charged I haven't taken any pictures! Here is the quick rundown of what we have been up to:

• I've been super busy during Ellie's nap time making new baby products that are sold at a local store. They carry a bunch of items from local crafters and artists as a portion of their clothing and accessories store. I was their top seller last month and they cannot keep my items on the shelf! It was an exciting and busy month that left me with very little spare "down time" while Ellie napped. I rolled out my bib and burp cloth sets as well as ladies' headbands. It has been fun coming up with new designs and bringing out summer fabrics!
• As a family we have gone on a crazy, tight budget. No more eating out on the weekends, Tim is taking lunch to work most, if not all, days, and I have cut our grocery bill by about 40%. All the extra cooking, lunch packing, and meal planning around sales/coupons has taken up a lot of free time as well. The reward for all the frugality is that we are taking a trip to the US Virgin Islands this November. It has actually been sort of fun to be on the budget, looking at it as a game to see how much we can save each week.
• Ellie has temporarily quit going to speech therapy. We are very happy with the progress she has made, but have stopped while we wait for our insurance coverage to kick in and start paying. I finally got a statement today that the claim is pending (sent in over a month ago) but just noticed that they think I am the patient, not Ellie. Once insurance pays, Ellie will probably continue having sessions every other week until her stutter disappears completely.
• Ellie and I are going to Idaho over Memorial Day weekend. It is a big "holiday" for my mom's side of the family and it is always nice to see all the cousins and second-cousins and their little ones. We all gather at various cemeteries throughout the day and it is a great time to learn new little bits of family history.
• A week after we get back from Idaho my mom is coming here to help out while I recover from surgery. I am going to have a hysterectomy on June 5th after many, many months of various failed treatments and procedures. What can I say? Uteruses (uterusi?) just don't age well in my family. I told Tim that I was glad we had already decided that we wouldn't be having any more children; having made that choice already took the emotional aspect out of the decision to go ahead with the hysterectomy.
• Our garden is in full swing with spring crops growing and the summer crops getting ready to be planted. My goal is to have everything in the ground before I leave for Idaho since I won't have a lot of time when I get back before going in for surgery. This year I built two new pea trellises and two new bean trellises. I'm going to grow cucumbers on an angled trellis this year for the first time. I have to get it constructed this weekend.
  

So, that is what has been going on here. Lots and lots of little things that have added up to no extra time! Between sewing, gardening, and talking to the insurance company every other day (about Ellie's speech and my medical issues) we have kept ourselves quite busy!

Potty Training 101

I think that Ellie and I could both use a potty training class. We need a lesson on sticking with it. A couple of months ago I started working with her on it, but then the stuttering started. We were advised to back off until the stutter stabilized. Well, that has happened so I "officially" started potty training her yesterday (and it went well), but today both of us are feeling a bit yucky from colds and neither of us was in the mood to tackle it.

I had planned on continuing today despite my illness (isn't that what being a mom is all about??), but when she started feeling yucky and began crying and asking me to, "Just put on a diaper. No panties. No Pull-Up" I relented and switched back to diapers. She has not wanted to sit on the potty at all today. If we were both feeling well I wouldn't have let her have such a backslide, but I guess we'll try again in a few days.

Yesterday she always used the potty when I asked her to and even came to me once and said she needed to go. She was in panties for the evening (her idea, after spending the afternoon with Jamie who is also potty training right now) and stayed completely dry.

So far I can say that potty training a two year old is similar to potty training a puppy: take them to the potty (or yard) every 30 minutes and lavish praise when they go. Don't make a big deal out of accidents and watch for signs of needing to use the bathroom more closely next time. How is it different? Sebastian never yelled, "NO NO NO" at me when I told him we were going to go potty, never threw himself on the ground crying and kicking, and never wanted a sticker when he was done :) I will also say that Sebastian was house-broken in less than a week, and he was only 9 weeks old at the time, so I think it is safe to say that the puppy was easier!

Cute Pictures, Courtesy of Steve

Our neighbor, Steve (Daddy of Ellie's best buddy, Jamison) has an awesome new digital SLR camera and he snapped these pictures of Ellie a couple of days ago. Thanks, Steve! They turned out awesome!