Aren't we all poor?

I know that a blog is probably not the most appropriate place to talk about finances but I am going to do it anyway mainly because I have had a lot on my mind lately regarding the subject.

As I was reflecting back on the last ten years of my life back to when Kevin and I were newlyweds and living on nothing but love, I realized that not a whole lot has changed. True, we now have four kids and have slightly aged but we are still living solely on love. I don't like to use the term "poor" because I don't feel like we have ever had to go without, but there have been times when I wished that we didn't have to worry whether we had a coupon or not.

I have been contemplating going back to work just to bring in some extra money. As I have been toiling with the idea about where I wanted to apply, and what I wanted to do, nothing seemed to come to mind. I wasn't sure about how the job would work out with Kevin's schedule since he is required to work some weekends but still I was heavily concerned with our financial well being.

After church yesterday I was set apart for my new calling as a visiting teaching supervisor, and just still was feeling a lot of stress about life. As the second counselor laid his hands upon my head, he gave me one of the neatest blessings. In the blessing he told me that the Lord wanted me to know that the most important place that I could be right now is home raising my girls, and that I needed to rely more on my husband. As he said that, in my heart I knew that what I am doing right now as a Mother is the most important job that I could be doing.

Fast forward to today; About an hour ago I received a phone call from one of my great friends, Sonya here in Tennessee. She said that she had been thinking about me all week, and that she felt like she needed to call and check up on me. She then asked me if she could pray with me over the phone. In her prayer she asked that my medical treatment would go well, and that the tumor would eventually shrink down in size. She blessed our family, and my husband, and then blessed that our financial situation would get better. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How would she know that our financial situation wasn't exactly the best? Sonya is not a member of the same church that I belong to and she wanted me to know that she was a firm believer in the power of prayer. I felt so moved by her prayer, and so touched that she would call to simply pray with me over the phone.

I feel so fortunate for all of the many blessings that I have been given, and I know that I have been given a lot. Where there's a will, there is a way. I don't know how it works out that we can survive on such a small amount each month but it does. I do look forward to having a real paycheck, but that will have to wait for about 2 1/2 years. For now, it's off to finding more great deals.

It's been about a month or so now since Leah has discovered how to climb stairs, and since this video, she is much faster at doing it now. Audrey doesn't quite know how to climb stairs yet, she only knows how to fall down them. I am not sure what I will do when both of them start wanting to climb. I feel like I am constantly chasing after them as it is, and already they are into EVERYTHING!

Church is quite the experience these days because of course they just want to explore everyone and everything around them. In Sunday school a few weeks ago, they were underneath a ward member's chair who we didn't know at all. He sat there patiently as two babies were pulling on his pant leg, and crawling all around him. He didn't seem to annoyed with them which was nice.

Grocery shopping is getting easier as well, and I am in love with the shopping carts that look like cars because they have two seats in the front for the babies to ride. It works out a lot better than having to take the stroller plus a grocery cart around the store.

We have almost survived the first year with these two, I can't believe it! What a crazy but fun journey it's been.

I have a fear of needles, and I am very claustrophobic. Having a brain tumor doesn't exactly help either of these fears. One being that I have to have frequent MRI'S, and the other being that now I have to solely depend on needles in hopes to shrink this dang tumor. I am now giving myself shots which is something that I didn't ever think I would be able to do but is getting easier. Originally the plan was to do the shots just once a month but because of the adverse reaction I had, we are now on to plan B which is to slowly increase the dose by giving the shots more frequently. The whole system is quite a complicated mess actually. I started out by doing the shots just once a day for a few days, then we increased to twice a day for a few days. As of yesterday, I am now supposed to be doing the shots three times a day. We won't mention the fact that I was only able to get one shot in yesterday. That's another thing about these shots is that it is a complicated drug in itself. You have to thaw out the medication thirty minutes before injecting. After that you place it back in the refrigerator, and then do the same process all over again. It will be nice when at some point when we can get back to just doing the shots once per month.

I feel like a drug addict just waiting each day for the perfect opportunity to shoot up. My drugs are something that I can't live without even though I would like to, trust me on this one. I really hate this treatment plan.

It's been really hard not feeling complete anger towards my neurosurgeon. Even though he told me up front that I had a very aggressive tumor and treatment was going to be complicated, I still feel angry that he wasn't able to remove any of the tumor the second time around. I realize that I had a decision in this, and that surgery was something that I too felt good about doing, but that still does not help the fact that here I am still with this gigantic tumor. This tumor is close to the optic nerves as I have mentioned before, and is also on the carotid artery so I do realize that there is not a whole lot that can be done at this time surgically speaking.

I think that for now the plan is to continue with these injections for about 3-4 months. At that time, I will go ahead and have another MRI to see if this medication has made any improvements with the size of the tumor. If it has then, it sounds like I will just continue with the injections. If there has not been any improvements we will go ahead with the radiation treatment.

So there you have it I guess, Trisha's health in a nutshell!

back to life, back to reality

Arriving to Tennessee in style

Kelsie loving every minute with Grandpa.
Her comment when he left was, "I didn't use to miss people when they left,
but now I do." Oh, so sweet!It was so cute watching these two together.
Kelsie loves her Grandpa

It was a little on the sunny side okay?

Aunt Tracy, Alyssa, Grandma, and Grandpa at Alyssa's school play

Kevin and Tracy at the Musician's Hall of Fame

Kelsie and Grandpa waiting for Kelsie's ride to pick
her up for preschool

Kevin learning from "the best"

Aunt Tracy and Leah

Grandpa and Kevin on their way to the priesthood session Grandma with the babies

cool glasses courtesy of Grandma

Leah with Grandpa

Isn't that a song? Well, it's our song I guess. Tomorrow, we are back to real life. The last few weeks has been filled with fall break, a week of PAID vacation for Kevin, and visitors from Utah. What more could we ask for? Kevin's grandparents made another visit in the motor home. Kevin's sister Tracy flew in at the same time, and it was great having them all here with us. I feel like I see our families more now than I did while living in Utah, it's great! I felt like we were able to get a lot of projects finished around our house especially while Grandpa Preece was around to do most of them for us. Kevin actually having some vacation time helped immensely as well. Part of the problem has just been that--lack of time. We have been living with a front door that didn't lock, kitchen chairs that were falling apart, a garage that was greatly disorganized, a bathroom fan that was driving me nuts, a driveway that was in desperate need of a power wash, and some other little things. Now we can cross all of those things off of our list because they are done. Grandpa and Kevin built some shelves for the garage, Grandpa spent endless hours power washing the driveway, Grandpa made it so that I now have a front door that locks, I now have a bathroom fan that doesn't have to turn on whenever you turn the light on, kitchen chairs that I won't fall off of, and overall, the house looks great.

Grandma was here and loved seeing the babies again. It's been almost seven months since she has seen them last. The babies of course remembered her, and loved being with their Grandma.

We were able to do a little sightseeing with Grandma and Tracy. We went on a tour of the Cumberland River, went to the musicians hall of fame, and just had a great time. The five days that they were here just went by way too fast like always.

We are so grateful for the wonderful families that we have, and for the continued support that they show to us. Thanks for coming to visit you guys, and we hope to see you again soon. We love you!

Did I mention how much I have enjoyed sleeping in? Alyssa has been on fall break for almost two weeks. It has been so nice not having to slap an alarm clock every morning. Back to real life I guess. Do I really have to start waking up at 5:45 tomorrow? Dang it!

"Look Ma, no cavities!"

Well, I heard that from one of my children today while we were at the dentist's office. Alyssa, on the other hand wasn't so lucky. She has her first cavity, and I am so disgruntled over it. What can you do I guess? We have been so anal with brushing our girls teeth, and just barely started letting Alyssa brush her own teeth, and now look what happened. Alyssa not only is going to have one cavity filled on her next appointment, she is also going to have a piece of skin cut from between her two front teeth. It's the skin that connects from the top of your gum to your lip called the frenulum. This has been an evident problem since she was born. We were thinking that when her permanent front teeth came in that the skin would eventually close together but such is not the case in Alyssa's situation. Alyssa also has a lot of overcrowded teeth and needs braces. This pediatric dentist would like to start treatment for her braces in about four months. Unfortunately, you need money for braces and lots of it. I don't know that braces will be happening anytime soon. Maybe when residency is finished? Poor Alyssa started crying when the dentist told her about the surgery. She isn't too happy about having braces either but I think that she will look cute with them, (even if she looks like Darla from Finding Nemo, that's okay. We will still love her anyway)

Okay, now I better go clean my house. The laundry is calling my name once again.

earrings

I'll be the first to admit it, I love earrings. I went through some crazy ear piercing times in my early teenage years. I had two holes in each ear for a while, and then I got bored with that so I switched to having three holes in each ear. Eventually I decided to add one more hole, and had the top of my ear pierced in the cartilage. I know, what would that prophet think?

Well, I have always wanted to get my little girls ears pierced. Kevin on the other hand, ummm he is not a big fan. Well, I take that back. He is a fan but only if our girls are fans and can decide for themselves if they want earrings or not.

I have mentioned the idea to Alyssa and Kelsie several times only to hear, "No Mom, we don't want earrings." I kind of stopped thinking about it for a while and then Kelsie mentioned to me out of the blue that she really wanted earrings. Apparently a lot of the girls at her preschool have earrings. Is it a bad sign that she is trying to follow the crowd? Well, I jumped on the idea and off to the mall we headed to go get Kelsie some earrings. She was very brave getting her ears pierced and cried only for a second, but boy does she love her pink diamond earrings.

Oh my word do earrings cost a fortune. I saw the sign for free ear piercing so I assumed that the earrings would be in the $10 price range. Boy was I mistaken! Earrings cost a fortune, it's definitely gone up in price since I have had mine done.

Kelsie's earrings make her so happy, and she loves to look at herself in the mirror constantly. Now she is trying to talk Alyssa into having her ears pierced. You can probably figure out for yourself what the answer to that is.

caramel apple suckers

I look forward to the fall because that means I get to eat these delicious caramel apple suckers. If you have never tried one, they are a must have! Kelsie was eating one and decided to let Leah try a lick. Well, that's just say that Kelsie didn't end up getting her sucker back. See for yourself.

Just a weeee bit.... Too funny!‏

This will make your Friday. Enjoy!

P.S. Thanks Mom for always brightening up my day!

'An extraordinarily handsome man decided he had the responsibility to marry the perfect woman so they could produce beautiful children beyond compare.With that as his mission he began to search for the perfect woman.Shortly thereafter he met a Redneck who had three stunning, gorgeous daughters that positively took his breath away. So he explained his mission to the Redneck and asked for permission to marry one of them.The Redneck simply replied, ' They're lookin' to get married, so you came to the right place. Look 'em over and pick the one you want.'The man dated the first daughter. The next day the Redneck asked for the man's opinion. 'Well,' said the man, 'she's just a weeeeee bit, not that you can hardly notice ... pigeon-toed.'The Redneck nodded and suggested the man date one of the other girls; so the man went out with the second daughter.The next day, the Redneck again asked how things went. 'Well, 'the man replied, 'she's just a weeeee bit, not that you can hardly tell . cross-eyed.'The Redneck nodded and suggested he date the third girl to see if things might be better. So he did.The next morning the man rushed in exclaiming,'She's perfect, just perfect. She's the one I want to marry.' So they were wed right away. Months later the baby was born. When the man visited the nursery he was horrified: the baby was the ugliest, most pathetic human you can imagine. He rushed to his father-in-law and asked how such a thing could happen considering the beauty of the parents.'Well,' explained the Redneck, 'she was just a weeeee bit, not that you could hardly tell ...pregnant when you met her.'