Update for mid-May:

Its been cool and drizzly here the last couple of days, but we are supposed to have 70's and dry through memorial day. I'm looking forward to finishing my planting and cleaning up the back yard. We should have a really nice garden this year as long as I can keep up with the weeding and watering. Marc is off Friday and Monday, so there are a few projects I hope we can get done. We also want to spend at least one day either up on the mountain or out at the beach. If its warm enough I hope to smoke a brisket one day too.

The kids are doing okay. Lily is so very excited to be turning 4 next week. We will have a little family party for her with cake and ice cream on Wednesday, then on June 7th she and I are going to host a mommy and daughter tea at a local Victorian tea house with 2 of my friends and their 4 year old daughters. Lily specifically asked to have a "girls only" party. So this is what we will do. I found her a beautiful sage green frilly dress to wear on clearance at Fred Meyer for only $13! It will be a lot of fun for her. I've asked one of the mom's to bring her really nice cannon digital and take some pictures, so I will be sure to send along some when I get them from her.

Colton is having an absolute blast in school. His reading has come along nicely. He is right where he should be and we couldn't be happier. He is such a loving little boy. Today he told his sister to eat all her veggies because they would "make her pretty like mommy". He continues to astound me with his creativity and all of his gorgeous artwork. I don't have the heart to throw any of it away! At the school open house last week we had a great time seeing all of the projects Colton had hanging in the hallway and in his room. His teacher just adores him and says he makes her laugh everyday with his quirky outlook on life.

Austin is still having some rough days with paying attention and finishing his work. It is primarily with writing. We finally had to sit down with him and explain that even though he knows how to write, if he doesn't do his work and show his teacher what he knows she may think he hasn't learned it and may want to have him do 2nd grade again. He is just barely getting to grade level in writing and we aren't sure if they will hold him back or not, but I am sure that if he doesn't improve, 3rd grade will be very hard for him. It is still so hard for me to decide if he really does have an attention/learning issue or if he is just being stubborn and doesn't want to do the work.

Marc's job is keeping him really busy lately. One of his team members' wife just gave birth to their 1st child and he will be out for 2 weeks. With Marc covering that extra work, he is putting in very full days. The good news is that because they are barely able to cover the contracts with the amount of techs they have right now it doesn't look like anyone else will be laid off! Whew!!! Marc's school is going well and he is carrying a B average. He has 2 more electives and then he starts the "meat" of the management program in July. From there he has about a year until he is finished. I'm really proud of him.

I have been looking for work, but either the jobs are straight commission, require full availability, or are in areas like food service that just don't make sense to take. We are making it right now and while we do without extras it doesn't make sense for me to take time away from my family for a job I'd hate if we don't absolutely need me too. We're pretty sure we can make it until fall when Border's will be bringing people back for the holidays again, and my manager there has told me she definitely wants me back then.

Only a few more weeks left of school and I am trying to figure out what our summer is going to be like. I'd like to take at least 1 camping trip, and a few day trips to places we've not seen in Oregon before. I'd like to get a few projects done, but we shall see things never go they way I plan them in my head. The challange is going to be surviving the summer without a car and all 3 kids at home! I hope we can get to know the bus routes well and be out and about, not stuck at home!

Well here we are at the end of March already! Where has the time gone??? I can't believe how quickly we are into spring and yet it really doesn't feel like spring. If it weren't for all the blooming plum and cherry trees I would say it was still winter!

With Spring comes Colton's birthday! Wow my baby boy is going to be 6!!! We are going to invite his kinder class to join us for a party hopefully on the 11th, if Out of This World Pizza has an opening. This will be his 1st big birthday party ever! I can't wait to see how much fun he will have! (Thanks mom!)

We are almost done with the spring product sale for cub scouts, and I am soooo very glad it is almost over. So far it looks like it's been a huge success. I think the pack has sold almost $5k worth of product, earning the boys close to $1200!! At this point we have almost our whole pack going to summer camps and most of them have paid their own way via fundraising! I am so proud of how hard these boys have worked toward their goal of going to camp.


With the slow going recovery of unexpected abdominal surgery and all the other "distractions" my house is a wreck and its driving me nuts! I am literally pretending not to see the insanity, otherwise I will break "doctor's orders" and clean something. Yeah I know, everyone is shocked to hear that I am actually wanting to clean, but really it is driving me crazy!

Not to mention the fact that I really need to get my raised beds preped for planting, the leaves raked out of my flower beds, and the weeds pulled! I hate seeing the days tick by with no rain and my not being able to be outside digging in the dirt. Starting seeds inside and watching them grow is only fueling the desire to see that I have a successful garden this year! Its both about really wanting to eat fresh homegrown veggies, and about saving money. I spent less than $20 on seeds and peat pots, I'll probably spend another $20 on dirt and compost for the beds, but in the end that is cheaper than one trip to the produce section of the grocery store or the farmers market!


Now for some not so good, scarey, and possible live changing news......



Marc may not have a job come June. They had layoffs this week and lost 1 person in his group. For the tools he is responsible for there are 5 people for 3 contracts so chances are they will let at least 1 person go in the near future. I'm nervous and scared of course, but at least we know it might be coming this time instead of being blind sided like we were back in TX.


Marc and I have both decided that if it does happen we will be moving back to Florida. I can't stand the idea of starting over in yet another new place with no family or friends. The kids need family, and our family needs us. Marc's mom in particular. So, since she has the space (both inside and a giant RV in the drive) for us until we can find jobs and get a place of our own we will stay with her. It looks like if he does get laid off he will get 2 months severence which would be enough to move us and hold us over for about a month.


The scariest part will be trying to sell our house. I just don't know if we can get what we owe on it, and if we can how long it will take. There are a ton of houses for sale in our neighborhood. ****BIG SIGH*** But enough of borrowing worry from tomorrow. We will just have to take it one day at a time and prepair for the worst while hoping for the best. There is a "state of the business" meeting going on right now, so maybe Marc will get some good news.

Surgery

So out of no where on Friday I started having pain in my abdomen. At first I thought it was just gas pain, then as it got worse and I started to feel nauseous, I thought it might have been food poisoning from the veggie cream cheese I had eaten. I had to take care of some cub scout stuff, so I gritted my teeth and headed up to the grange hall to meet Wael from the district office to turn in our pack's cookie dough order. While I was waiting for him the pain got worse, and I got sick. When he got there, he ran down a few things for me to try and what to do if they didn't work. Ended up following his advice about an hour after I got home and went to the ER. By the time I got to the ER at around 8pm I could barely stand up and the pain was so bad I could barely breathe.

One of the ER nurses found a gurney for me to lay down on until they could get me a room. She started an IV so that I could have pain meds ASAP. About 10 minutes later I was back in a room and getting Torval and Delaudin by IV. After 4 doses they finally got my pain under control. I swear I have never felt such intense pain ever before in my life. At that's said after having 2 drug free childbirths!

So now that I was finally comfortable, the investigation into what was causing me so much pain could begin. First, it was off for a CAT scan of my abdomen. The ER doc thought that it could be a kidney stone, so this was the best test to look at my kidneys. About a half an hour after I got back from the scan the ER doc came in and asked me who my Gyn was. Then left. I was left wondering why on earth she wanted to know that it of info. About 15 minutes later she comes back and tells me that from the CAT scan it looks like I have a torqued ovary. Which meant that my ovary was twisted. She then tells me that I need surgery to fix it. OK I'm a little freaked out now. Mind you I'm at the hospital by myself, no clue who could watch my kids so that Marc could be with me, and not all that fond of the idea of being rushed off to surgery without being able to see my family first. So I lay there a little scared, a little out of it from all the narcotics floating around in my bloodstream, and just a little pissed that I don't know what the hell is going on.

Finally after another 30 minutes or so Dr Thum from my Gyn's office comes in to see me. She says to me that the CAT scan isn't the best diagnostic tool to use when looking at the ovaries and that she really needs me to have an ultrasound to get a better idea of what is going on with mine. So the u/s tech comes and gets me, we have a nice chat during the whole procedure and she puts my mind at ease by telling me what she sees and that it doesn't look like it's an emergency. This is confirmed when Dr. Thum comes back to tell me that my ovary isn't twisted, but that I do have a fairly large cyst that seems to be "leaking" which can cause the intense pain I have been feeling. She isn't sure it needs to be operated on yet, but wants to admit me to the hospital for pain management while they come up with a plan.

So OK at this point I'm dazed and confused since I have no idea what awaits me. I'm glad that I'm going to be admitted so I can have a real bed and sleep. Since they aren't rushing me to surgery I also get to eat something. I finally get to my room, get some pudding, and another dose of pain meds and go to sleep.
The next morning Dr Thum comes in and says that managing my pain is the best she can do for me. She doesn't think I need surgery and isn't sure how long it will take for the cyst to go away or my pain with it. She wants to keep me in the hospital until I can get off the IV pain meds and be able to take meds orally and eat without being sick. So that was the plan.

Until I started thinking about trying to manage my life while on pain meds. Not being able to drive, in a foggy haze, trying to be a mom and a wife in that situation didn't seem like a good idea of me. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that the cyst and its host ovary needed to come out. I just had this "gut" feeling that surgery was the answer here. Well Dr Thum, and the other doc from my doc's practice didn't really agree with me. I talked with Dr. Morris (I think that was her name) on Sunday and finally got her to agree to let me stay one more night in the hospital so that I could actually see MY doctor and let him make the decision. So Monday morning comes and Dr. Klotz comes in and we chat about everything that is going on. He realizes that I have a valid point. I have had a hysterectomy, I am not having any more children, and I don't need 2 ovaries to keep my hormones going and keep me from going into menopause. I also don't need to be in pain or on pain meds for an indefinite period of time. So, he checks the OR schedule and gets me set for surgery Tuesday morning.

The surgery goes well, and when Dr Klotz comes to see me afterwards he says that my instincts were right. Turns out that the cyst was actually INSIDE my ovary, and it was leaking. It was bleeding INTO ITSELF. Which means that it was only going to get bigger as it bled into itself and filled up even more. And that meant that it wasn't going away anytime soon. So I feel validated. And very glad I stuck to my guns and insisted that they fix this instead of just sending me on my way with a Rx and a smile.

I'm home now. Trying to recuperate with 3 kids under foot and a husband who can't take any more time off work. But fortunately my kids are being great, and I don't really feel too bad. Tired, sore, but mending. My incisions hurt, and my insides are bruised but they will heal and I will be back running around like crazy in no time.