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Sunday's are going to be a breeze

2010-05-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

Church for the last eighteen months has been quite an adventure to say the least. In the beginning it was hard hauling in two infant car seats, 1 diaper bag, and Alyssa and Kelsie's church bag. Kevin had to work a lot of Sunday's and so it turned out that usually I just went to church with the kids by myself. I felt like the ward service project because I was constantly needing help at church. You could always hear when our family was at church by the way that Leah and Audrey would scream during sacrament meeting. Some weeks I had to resort to calling our old bishop's wife to see if she wouldn't mind picking up our older girls so that I could stay home and give the babies a nap. As the babies got a little older and weren't in their infant car seats anymore, things actually got a little bit more challenging. Now I had to carry both of them into the building plus all of their belongings. When they began walking guess what? They no longer wanted to hold still during our classes so we would spend our two hours of meeting chasing babies around the building. Good times for all. Now that Leah and Audrey are at the magical age of 18 months they get to go to nursery. With my older two girls, I think that I cried when I dropped them off at nursery for the first time, but oh how happy I was when I got to drop off my fifty plus pound of energetic one year olds. They were so happy to be there, and they have just loved nursery. I have been sneaking them in for the last couple of weeks to get them used to the idea. They didn't even flinch when I left the room, they are loving the nursery. The nursery teachers are great, and I trust them deeply with my girls. Last week they made Mother's day cards with their pictures inside. Leah's card was signed Audrey, and Audrey's card was signed Leah. It was pretty cute. I guess when you are not used to seeing them that they are easy to get mixed up. Anyway, church is going to be a breeze, and I actually will be able to hear what is being said during the lesson.

Tennessee flooding take 2

2010-05-04T05:21:00.000-07:00

inside of the Opryland hotel

Downtown Nashville

Vanderbilt University downtown Nasvhille

Downtown Nashville

Hard Rock cafe Downtown Nasvhille

Downtown Nashville

This is like waking up to a bad dream, this whole flooding experience is so surreal. I find it odd that not only did we experience the worst winter storm in Tennessee but now we are experiencing the worst rain storm in Tennessee. There is something so wrong with this picture. I couldn't sleep last night and kept thinking that when we woke up, our house would be underwater. Luckily it wasn't but so many homes in our area and surrounding areas are.

The next county over is under a strict water conservation after one of the city's two large water treatment plants was shut down. These companies are completely emerged in water. They are asking residents to use half of their normal household water, and also asked that you didn't shower, wash clothes, or wash dishes. Can you imagine? Again, we are lucky because so far we have been able to do those things. With this just being the next county from us, I am not sure if we will be under the conservation soon.

The Cumberland river which runs through downtown Nashville has completely flooded, spilling water into Music City's historic downtown streets while rescuers using boats and Jet Skis plucked stranded residents away from their flooded homes.

The flash floods caught the city off guard, and thousands of residents and tourists were forced to flee homes and hotels as the river rapidly spilled over its banks. The rapidly rising waters led to the deaths of 18 people in Tennessee, including 10 in Nashville.

This is terrible you guys, and it's so sad to see all of the people who have been affected by this storm. One lady on the news said that she had recently lost her job, and now her home was completely under water. She also doesn't have any flood insurance which seems to be the case in a lot of these stories. What a tragedy for the whole state of Tennessee.

May 2nd just isn't our day

2010-05-04T05:03:00.001-07:00

parking lot next to our post office

This used to be a sidewalk by the post office

coming into the grocery store where I shop

neighbors house that was affected by the storm

my neighborhood

my neighborhood

You know I am really starting to hate the date of May 2nd. It's my sister-in-law's birthday and I do like that. Everything else about the date is starting to really stink. You remember last May 2nd when I posted pictures of our basement flooding right? Well, can you believe that again our basement flooded on the very same day as last year? The day has been crazy and the weather has been even crazier. The morning started with a phone call about 5:30 a.m. from a sweet friend. She called to warn me that a tornado was heading our way in about five minutes, and told us that we should take shelter. Now that I think about it, I did hear the tornado sirens going off just a few minutes before she called. Because I have never heard them before, I didn't think anything of it. Immediately we turned on the news and saw that our city had cancelled the tornado warning but had issued a flood warning instead. Just what we needed...more rain.

Our crawl space is in a terrible location, and water seeps in just as fast as the rain is coming down, and when the rain is coming down by the bucket-fulls, not exactly a good situation. I cringe whenever I think about it raining because I know what disaster is going to happen next. You guessed it--a flood.

The rain continued to pour down. I am used to the Tennessee rain storms but this was unlike anything that I had seen. There was so much rain. As we continued watching the news, it showed city after city getting flooded, freeways were closing, and not only were freeways closing but people were also getting stranded on the freeways. Major streets were closing, homes getting swept away from the flooding, people dying, people stranded on top of their homes that were now covered in water, major power outages, lack of water at the emergency shelters, the list just went on and on. At one point the state of Tennessee declared a national weather emergency, and told people that they couldn't drive anywhere and were ordered to stay put.

Our house didn't float away in the storm, and thank heavens for that but our basement did flood. We stopped counting after we pumped over 350 gallons of water out. The carpet was replaced after our last flood a year ago, and we didn't want to have to replace it all again. We are going to try letting it air dry. We will see what happens.

I'm a little stressed right now as we are also in the middle of trying to get ready for our trip to Utah in less than three weeks. I feel like I have so much to do in such little time. We will be okay though and we will get through this just like we have gotten through everything else.

What a crappy day!

Couponing.... I'm addicted

2010-04-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

I will be the first to admit that I love to find a good deal. True my husband will tell you that a better deal would have been to not purchase it in the first place but what does he know? I tend to disagree, and constantly seem to be on the search for a great deal. I have always been pretty good about using coupons and searching out the best deal before purchasing something.

When I lived in Utah, it seemed like the deals were a lot harder to find. I think Utah is a prety competitive state when it comes to couponing. So many large families who are all trying to do the same thing.... save money. I just found myself not wanting to use coupons as often because nine times out of ten when I would go and try to get the deal, the item I was looking for was gone.

I love living in Tennessee just for the simple reason that couponing is easier here. You can simply go to the store, and find what it is that you are looking for. I shouldn't say always, but I would say over 90% of the time that's the case.

This was my weekend for couponing. I spent several hours yesterday gathering my coupons together so that today I could go off alone and gather up my deals. I was rather pleased with myself when I got home and laid everything out on my table.

Just for fun I would like you to comment on what you think I paid for my groceries. Who knows, I may even throw in a prize if you come close to the actual cost. Go ahead, just take a guess. Oh yeah, the piggy bank is not included. I put him in the picture because I feel like we are saving so much on groceries when I use my coupons. In case you can't tell from the picture, here is what I bought.

2 tubes of Rembrandt toothpaste $7.99 each
1 package of skittles .89
1 box of Benadryl cream $4.39
1 Schick Hydro shaving cream $2.97
5 Ban deodorants $4.99 each
6 boxes of pasta $1.49 each
12 rolls of Cottonelle toilet paper $5.99
2 packages of Oreo's $3.50 each
1 box of shredded wheat cereal $4.99
1 box of grape nuts cereal $4.99
2 boxes of Raisin Bran $4.39
1 tube of mascara $4.99
1 box of Midol $4.99
1 box of Bayer aspirin $2.19
2 tubes of Crest toothpaste $3.19 each
1 box of Prevacid $22.49
1 pro clinical Colgate toothpaste $7.99
4 jars of Peter Pan peanut butter $2.33 each
1 gallon of milk $3.50

My total on this order was $22.00. Can you believe that? Just for the Prevacid alone without coupons would have cost me what I paid for my entire supply of groceries.

Leah and Audrey happenings

2010-04-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

Where has the last seventeen months gone? I ask myself that same question every morning as I look at these two sweet and busy little girls. It really just seems like yesterday that I brought them home terrified to no end, wondering how in the world I would ever be able to take care of two babies at a time. Now seventeen months later here we are.

I was recently going through some baby clothes and found a preemie onesie that we had for Leah. The onesie was way too big for her when we first put it on her, and now judging by her size. You would never guess that she was only 5 lbs. 9 oz. when she was born. I was so sure that she wasn't going to live very long because of her size, and would call the newborn nursery at the hospital almost daily for advice on how to care for her. I was so worried about her when she was born. She wasn't eating very well when we first brought her home, and maybe I have over compensated for that now. The girl never stops eating. I love her and all of her chubbiness.

I still get the usual questions from strangers such as "are they twins?" "are you sure they aren't identical?" "are you done having kids?" The best comment came a few weeks ago. It was made by a lady that I don't know super well but knows that our girls are twins. She wanted to know how old Leah was. I quickly replied that she was 17 months. She then asked specifically how old her twin sister was. I looked at her dumbfounded and said, "she is also 17 months, they are twins!" It was a classic blond remark, but none the less I couldn't help myself from laughing. The comment got even funnier when she then asked if they were identical twins, or mirror twins? (mirror twins? Aren't those the same as identical twins?) I said they are neither. She was beyond confused at that point, and luckily it was time for me to go home at that point in our conversation.

The biggest news happened last month when Audrey decided to finally start walking. Leah started walking when she was about fourteen months, and Audrey decided it was her time. She now walks all over the place. Her preferred form of transportation would still be to be carried, but I am trying to make her walk.

Audrey's hair is so dark and very curly. So far she is our only child that has kept their dark hair since birth. Leah's hair is very light and is very straight. Both girls are completely different in looks and personality. Audrey is much more photogenic and is always smiling. Leah will smile but it takes a lot of work to make her do so. However, one thing that will always make Leah smile is her shoes. She LOVES to wear shoes. Preferably her red sparkly wizard of oz shoes. She even takes naps in her shoes. Weird I know. I guess she takes after Kelsie with her fashion sense.

These two little girls consume a lot of my day, and not a whole lot gets done around the house. If I do manage to get something done, they are right behind me undoing whatever it was they I managed to get done. We call them our little tornadoes, and believe me they are.

I am telling you right now that pictures just don't do justice of these two. They are even cuter in person. I love having all of these girls in our house, I really do! Right now life is going great. I can't complain!

Alyssa happenings

2010-04-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Well for one thing, Alyssa got a new look. She now has braces and looks so cute with them. I thought that the lisp was going to last forever, and I am so glad that it only lasted for a week.

Alyssa has really come out of her shell this year, and I give credit to her wonderful second grade teacher for that. The quiet and reserved little Alyssa is now just a happy and energetic eight year old.

Alyssa is still 100% tom boy, and wants nothing to do with "GIRL" stuff. After getting her nails painted she said that she looked ugly. (should we be worried yet?) Of course since we don't have any boys in our family it's okay because we have Alyssa. She will dig in the dirt, hold bugs, and she knows how to use tools. The other day we went outside to find her fixing Kelsie's training wheels with a wrench in tow. It was the funniest thing, and even funnier that she knew how to use the wrench properly.

Alyssa has a strong bond with her Dad, and the two of them speak whale or something. It's a language that the rest of us don't understand I swear. They tell jokes that only the two of them understand, they think alike, they act alike, they are just alike. It's so sweet to watch the two of them together. A strong bond with a Father is something that I never had, and I am so thankful that I get to see this through the shinning eyes of my daughters.

Alyssa continues to excel in school, and is just enjoying second grade. She makes friends easily, and is really loving Tennessee. She is looking forward to going to Utah in a few weeks where she will be getting baptized.

Alyssa keeps us entertained that's for sure. She is such a good helper with her little sisters, and they look up to her so much. Even little Kelsie's friends can't get enough of Alyssa. Oh how we love our sweet girls.

Video of Kelsie reading The Nose Book

2010-04-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

One other thing that I wanted to post was a video of Kelsie reading. A lot of people have asked me to record her reading, so here you go. She is a very good reader.

We were driving by Shoney's one night and some of the letters were out on the sign and so it only said HO. I didn't think much of it until Kelsie pipes up from the back seat and says, "Mom, what's a ho? My response was, "ummm, it's just what Santa says."

Kids say the funniest things.

2010-04-14T07:12:00.001-07:00

Kelsie happenings

2010-04-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

Oh my mischievous Kelsie with the biggest heart you could ever imagine, where do I even begin in telling you what Kelsie has been up to? Should I start with her obsession of writing her name on everything, or should I start by telling you the good things that she is doing? Hmmm, I think that I will have to start with the bad.

Well Kelsie has been obsessed with writing her name all over the entire house with all kinds of objects including markers, pencils, lipstick, bathtub crayons. You name it, and she could probably find a way to write her name with it. My favorite name carving had to be when she carved her name into her dresser which by the way was one day old. Of course she denied writing her name on anything. According to her she doesn't remember how it happened. Problem being, neither do the rest of us. Oh, sometimes Kelsie just makes me want to scream, and other days she is the sweetest girl you could ever meet.

Out of all of my girls, I would have to say that Kelsie is the most responsible. I know that when I tell Kelsie to do something that means that she will get it done. She is very capable of taking care of herself, and wants to make sure that she looks good at all times. She is very fashionable which I am not used to, and prefers to do her own hair. Kelsie has picked up reading over night just as I remember Alyssa doing. Kelsie is very smart, sometimes a little too smart for her own good. She has the biggest heart, and loves all of her sisters so much. She is a good helper around the house, and has an obsession with cookbooks like her Mother.

Another great thing for Kelsie happened last month, it was her birthday and she turned the magical age of five which means that she gets to go to school soon. Kelsie can't wait to go to kindergarten, and be able to ride the bus with her big sister. She thinks that is going to be the coolest thing. Apparently, life at home with Mom isn't that cool anymore.

I love my little Kelsie, and life without her sure wouldn't be the same.

My best April Fool's day joke ever

2010-04-02T05:32:00.000-07:00

It happened about thirteen years ago or so. I called my friend's husband who I didn't know that well, and told him that he had been late paying on his jeep, and so sadly enough we were going to have to come and reposses his pride and joy. He told me over and over on the phone that he had made his last car payment on time so I calmly said that if he could get the documentation to be in a few hours then we wouldn't have any problems and the jeep would be his. Problem was he was at work and couldn't get out in time. Oh, just hearing his frazzled voice was just beyond funny. I stayed calm and we hung up the phone. As soon as I hung up with him, my friend and I just laughed and laughed. We had him going for the entire day, and when he finally came home from work, we broke the happy news to him that he wasn't going to loose his jeep after all. Oh, good times!

Don't you love April Fool's day? What a great day. My kids had a great time telling their Dad that he had bugs on his back all day. They also loved taping down the kitchen faucet so that when you turned on the water, you got sprayed in the face. They didn't get around to messing up his sock drawer though, that's always their favorite joke. Our JOKE to them was telling them that they were going to be getting a baby BROTHER. Kelsie was ecstatic when we told her. Then sadly we told her that we were only KIDDING! THERE IS NO BABY BROTHER COMING!

Oh you guys, I had you going didn't I? We are not having a baby. It was fun making you wonder though. Happy April Fool's Day!

meet junior

2010-03-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

You know the story about the old woman who lived in a shoe. Yeah, something about she had so many children and didn't know what to do? That's the theme around these parts. Four kids has been really busy that's for sure, and I am not quite sure how we are going to handle 5 or where we are going to sleep 5. What's it like having 5 kids anyway? I don't know, but I will you tell you in about 24 more weeks. What's it going to be like having a BOY around our house? Little Tanner won't know what to do with all of this estrogen, and I don't think that I remember how to take care of just one baby. Yes, it's just one baby this time!

We had an ultrasound yesterday, and things look good. Oh yeah, and Mom don't worry about my thyroid. That was all part of the plan to throw you off about why I have been so tired lately. This little man is to blame.

We are so excited and can't wait to meet our little guy!

Tell me who you are

2010-03-30T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hello blogging world,
It's been a while since I updated my blog, and I have to admit that it's been so nice not feeling like I am addicted to my computer. I want to update my blog soon but just have been busy with lots of other things.

I also am going to make my blog private and would like you to send me your e-mail addresses if you would like to continue reading about our family. I am not sure how I feel about random people being able to read about our family, and as others have said. "You can't be too sure these days." So, with that being said, just send me an e-mail at trishapreece23@hotmail.com and let me know who you are, and I will add you to our reading list.

I promise that I will add new pictures and new entries soon. Thanks for reading!

2010-02-19T08:15:00.001-08:00

Alyssa's got talent

2010-02-19T07:23:00.000-08:00

About three weeks ago Alyssa came home from school and asked me if she had any talents. I started telling her about all of the talents I thought that she had, and her face immediately lights up as she says, "I know, I jump rope" I tell her that's a great talent, and after we finish talking about talents, she throws a paper at me about the upcoming school talent show. She asked me if I thought that she could be in the talent show, and I tell her that of course she can. After she repeatedly says "really" over and over again, she decides that jump roping is indeed what she is going to do. For the several weeks leading up to the talent show, she practices and practices jump roping. She had three nights of talent show practice, and 1 night of rehearsal. Alyssa worked so hard on this, and I was so proud of her for wanting to do this all on her own. Anyone who knows Alyssa knows that she is painfully shy, and I knew that being in the school talent show would really help boost her confidence. You should also know that when Alyssa first picked up her jump rope, she could barely jump. She taught herself in three weeks how to jump rope backwards, how to jump rope on one foot, how to stop the jump rope, seriously I was impressed. There was absolutely no coercing from Kevin and I, she did this all on her own.

Last night was the talent show, and I got a little nervous as I thought about Alyssa entering onto the stage. I wondered if she would end up getting stage freight, if she would mess up, and wondered how she would hold up. All through dinner, she kept saying that she was so nervous. She practiced right before we left our house, and just kept stumbling. At our dinner prayer, I just prayed that she wouldn't be nervous when it was time for the actual performance, and that she would be able to concentrate on her jump roping. Well, let's just say that I was so pleased with her performance. I lost all composure as I watched my sweet, shy, not so little,girl perform like a super star. Her school has got some serious talent, the other performers were just as wonderful. What a great night.

Here is our jump roping video, hope you like it. I know that we do.

Dr. Oz

2010-02-16T06:51:00.000-08:00

I love watching Dr. Oz, talk about one smart doctor. He knows about everything. In my case, he also knows about brain tumors. I was able to meet with him in person, and he reviewed all of my medical findings. He told me that my doctors here at Vanderbilt where missing a large piece of the puzzle, and what they thought wasn't cancerous tissue was in deed very cancerous. I was also to have a bone marrow transplant as soon as possible. Dr. Oz was so kind as to escort me out of the room where my husband stayed waiting for my return. I talked with a nurse for a few minutes and asked her how this could have turned cancerous when I was almost guaranteed that it would stay benign. I told her about how the tumor was aggressive, and could lead to things like blindness if it went untreated but I was never told about the cancer. As I went back to my room, Kevin was just in tears and he told me that he had known about the cancer all along. He just didn't want to make me worried.

So glad that this was only a DREAM, talk about giving some one a heart attack. Kevin always tells me that everything isn't a conspiracy theory. Maybe that's just my problem, I think everyone is out to get me including him.

I'm still praying for good results come this spring/summer with the radiation results. Keep your fingers crossed that I don't end up going to see Dr. Oz.

Frosty the snowman

2010-02-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

Well you have heard me talk about our first snowfall of the year which only amounted to about 1/4 of a centimeter or so, hardly enough to make even a snowball. Then a greater surprise happened about two weeks later, we got more snow. This time we got about 4 inches which in Tennessee is a lot of snow. School was closed for 4 long days, and people were just going crazy about the snow. All of the kids around us were just enjoying the snow. We saw a lot of make shift sleds made out of laundry baskets, cardboard, swimming rings, and other stuff. It was pretty funny. It was even funnier watching our kids go outside to play and only wishing that we had snow gear for them. We don't have sleds, we don't have snowsuits, we don't have boots, and most importantly, we don't have a snow shovel. None of that even seemed to matter though, and the only thing our girls cared about was making a snowman.

With such a good snowfall the snowman making wasn't going to be a problem. Kevin ventured out with the girls, and the three of them made the perfect snowman. We snapped a few pictures of Frosty, and then everyone came back inside to warm up for a while. It wasn't but maybe 1o seconds later that we heard Kelsie screaming with her ever so pleasant scream about how there were some boys outside knocking over their snowman. Kevin literally was outside in the blink of an eye screaming at the top of his lungs, and informing the three little assailants outside ruining our precious snowman to get off of our property. They were riding on their dune buggy and said that it had spun out of control onto our lawn. Yeah whatever! Seeing the perfect trail that lead from the bottom of our driveway right to the snowman which was pretty close to our front door. I don't think so. Kevin pretty much scared the living daylights out of these boys. Over and over you just kept hearing the boys say, "we are sorry sir" Kevin was very forceful and repeatedly used the words "Get off of our property"! For some reason when the boys went to leave, their dumb little dune buggy got stuck. Without any sympathy, Kevin was counting for them to leave. As they were trying to push it out of the snow their bodies were seriously trembling. All the while, Kevin's counting down and telling them that the police are on the way over. I was watching from the door, and couldn't stop laughing. For starters, I had never seen Kevin raise his voice like that. Let's just say that I didn't know a voice like that could come out of such a small stature. Holy cow! Alyssa and Kelsie were crying hysterically, they said it was because they were scared of the way that Kevin was yelling. It didn't help either that their precious snowman was now just a pile of nothing. As the boys started running away without their dune buggy which was still on our grass, I told Kevin that maybe he could go and help the boys get their dune buggy unstuck. Very grudgingly, he went out and helped them. Basically the boys were told to never come back. I did see them riding their dune buggy later by our street. They turned around quickly as the were approaching our house. Just writing about the event doesn't even do justice. I wish that I had a video of it. It still is just making me laugh out loud. Frosty came back to life don't worry, this time he decided to be in the backyard instead of in the front yard. Nobody would bother him there.

On a funnier side note: A couple of hours after this all happened, Kelsie comes to me and asks what a jerk is? I start getting upset wondering who told her about jerks. She then says, "Mom when those boys were here breaking our snowman, you said to "get off of our lawn you little jerks." Whoops, just when you think they aren't listening, they really are!

The things you do for Love!

2010-02-12T14:34:00.001-08:00

or out of desperation for a baby who has been crying non-stop for days suffering with an ear infection. Audrey did make us laugh though even though she had been being so cranky. I was so glad that I could capture this on video. It's way too funny not to share. Enjoy the video.

2010-02-12T14:33:00.001-08:00

The start of a beautiful year

2010-01-26T05:15:00.001-08:00

Life is back in session, and I get to be a Mom again. I don't know of anything that gets better than that? To top if off, I finished radiation treatments and won't be spending 12-15 hours a week at the hospital. YEAH! Since finishing radiation a couple of weeks ago, I have been getting followed by my little four year old who wants to know where I am at all times. The separation anxiety is starting to kick in a little. I have assured her that I won't be leaving her anytime soon. What a relief just to be home. I love it. Now, we are going to play a little waiting game to see if the radiation worked or not. In April and July, I will have MRI's done. We will compare the two scans and hope to not see any new growth of tumors. I am literally on my hands and knees daily begging for a miracle. I truly am hoping for some great news! It has been a LONG road that's for sure.

One more thing that doesn't have to do with radiation but I wanted to mention anyway was about the weather. Tennessee has been COLD lately. We started out the beginning of the month with SNOW. We got about 1/4 of an inch and school was closed for 3 days. Totally ridiculous that they closed school. I understand that the roads could be icy, and that the buses can't get up and down all of the hills, but people, I am talking the roads were 100% clear. As a kid, I would have loved school to close. I think that they might have closed school 1 day that I can remember. Oh well, what can we do about it? The kids sure have missed snow, and talk about it every winter. They were so excited to gear up and get outside to play. The most snow was in our driveway, and Kelsie even managed to do a snow angel. Alyssa managed to make a snowman, you might have to hold it in your hand but what the heck? It's snow, and that's all that matters. It was very nice to have water this year,and to not experience frozen pipes. Thanks to my husband for insulating the pipes this year.

2010 is going to be a good year, I can feel it. We are already off to a great start I can feel it. Good things come to those who wait, and I feel that we have waited long enough.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-27T17:55:00.001-08:00

What would you know? Santa found us again this year. Kelsie had a good question. She wanted to know how it was that Santa could land his sleigh when we didn't have any snow on the ground. Hmmmm, not sure about that but somehow it happened. For the record, we did get some snow this year. Kelsie had to rush outside after the snowfall and measure the intake with her little snow measuring stick.The snow measured somewhere between .005-.008 cm. Pretty impressive if you ask me, and sadly to say it wasn't quite enough to even attempt making a snow ball. The kids really are missing the snow. Kevin and I aren't missing the snow at all.

Our Christmas was really laid back this year and it was nice not having to rush out anywhere. Both Alyssa and Kelsie were a little under the weather anyway on Christmas so it was nice just being able to relax at home with our own family.

Sadly to say my heart wasn't in Christmas this year. The normal Christmas things that I usually find pleasure in just weren't the same for me this year. Fortunately other hearts were in the holiday spirit this year and really touched mine. So many people were looking out for us, and helped to make our holiday bright. I appreciate all of the love that was shown to us. We have such great friends, neighbors, and family members. I hope that next year I will be back to my normal holiday self.

2009-12-26T14:29:00.001-08:00

Boys will be Boys

2009-12-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

The mustache boys of anesthesiology

Take a close look at Kevin in these pictures. Do you notice anything different about him? Yes, he is wearing a suit which only happens once in a blue moon but there is something else that is different? Oh, he has something growing on his face. You guessed it. Yes, he has a mustache, and Yes, I hate it.

Kevin came home from work a while ago and told me that the men in his department were all going to be growing mustaches for the upcoming Christmas party. I have seen Kevin with a mustache one other time in the ten years that we have been married, and I did not let him go out in public with the thing. When he told me that he was going to do it yet again, I just tried to keep my opinions to myself. I said tried because I couldn't help myself, and every time that he talked to me, I would just laugh at him. He is hard to take seriously when he looks like a weird convict or something. I won't say out loud what I told him that he looks like but he seriously looked creepy with the stache. Even Leah and Audrey didn't hardly recogonize him with the fuzzy mess growing on his face.

The Christmas party was last weekend, and Yes I had to be seen with him in public. It wasn't as bad as I expected and we had a really nice time despite my allergic reaction to scallops. Overall it was a pleasant experience.

When Kevin returned to work this week, his stache didn't return with him. His co-workers were relieved to see that his razor had found his face, as was I.

One week down, many more to go!

2009-12-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

I have officially survived one week of radiation. What a week it has been. I feel like I have been pretty much living in the radiation oncology department. I have to go Monday-Friday and luckily have weekends and holidays off. It's not as bad as I imagined it to be and not painful at all. I had heard a lot of horror stories about radiation. You know the stories, My friends cousins husband's wife had radiation and her face got burned so bad that you couldn't even recognize her afterwards. Yes, those kids of stories. Everyone always has a story don't they? Well, so far no burns, no vomiting, and no hair loss. I have felt a little more run down than usual, and my eyes seem dry. Other than that, really I don't have much to complain about.

I have met some incredible people in the radiation oncology department. It's surprisingly a really good place to hear some incredible stories of courage and endurance. As I have talked to many patients this week, we have all come up with the same conclusion. What gets us through this is our attitude. We have to remain positive and have faith that things are going to work out. Sometimes that's hard to do, but I know there is a lot of truth to that.

I am really hopeful that this will be the last of my treatment as it is really the last resort. I will continue radiation through the first week of January, and then will have an MRI in the spring to see if this worked or not. By the time we find out the results, we will have been going at this for three years. I was diagonosed with the tumor on Alyssa's 5th birthday and it would be so nice to have it gone by her 8th birthday.

Radiation has advanced tremendoulsy, and there are so many complex procedures to ensure that they are only getting the radiation to the exact location that they are wanting. What I am having done is called fractionated radiation. Instead of one large dose of radiation, I am having several small doses over six weeks of time. I wear a mesh mask over my face which looks awesome by the way, and then I lay on a table for about 20 minutes while some x-rays and radiation beams are shooting into my body. It's hard to describe the feeling after radiation. It's a lot like having the life zapped out of you. As soon as I start walking out to my car, I feel normal again.

Ice

2009-12-01T05:03:00.001-08:00

The Opryland hotel puts on an incredible ice show every year, and this year we had the privilege of going for FREE. The admission is very expensive and it would have cost our family over $80.00 to go. Kevin was able to get some free tickets from work and so we decided to check it out. All of the sculptures are hand carved out of colored ice, and the work is incredible. As you get ready to enter you are given a lovely blue parka to wear as it is only eight degrees inside where the sculptures are. Mind you I have now lived in Tennessee for eighteen months and no longer remember the freezing cold. As we all put her parka's on and walked inside, we could see our breath. It was so cold, and the kids and I just kept saying over and over, "This is what it was like in Utah, and we are freezing." Seriously it was so cold, but really neat to see. Afterwards we warmed up with some hot chocolate and then walked back to our van in the nice 70 degree weather.

2009-11-25T19:13:00.000-08:00

These pictures were taken at Kelsie's preschool and I think they turned out cute, despite the kids all with their deer in headlights look. Oh well, can't complain too much especially when the pictures were free. Each family received a free package of pictures that included 1 8x10, 2 5x7's, 8 wallets, and some cute Christmas cards.

Speaking of pictures, we have none on our computer. All was lost after we got our computer back. I try not to think about it because it just makes me sick thinking about it. I am grateful that at least I will be able to print off some pictures from our blog, and from some other companies who I have ordered pictures from in the past. What a precious thing to lose though.

We are looking forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow. Hopefully it will go better than last year. Kevin has Thanksgiving off, and it will be great spending some time together as a family.

I'm back..... but not for long

2009-11-20T19:39:00.000-08:00

You don't realize how much you use a computer until you are forced to go without one for weeks on end. It's so frustrating! It's especially frustrating when the person fixing your computer thinks that they didn't back up your computer before having to rebuild a new one. Not really a great thing when you have all of your children's lives in pictures stored on the computer. Sadly to admit, we also didn't make any backup disks. I am really holding out for hope that all is not lost.

I am borrowing a friends laptop as we speak, and hopefully one day we will be the owners of our own computer.

On a more positive note, my wonderful Mother was here visiting again and was able to be here for 10 days. She is so amazing, and I am grateful that she comes to visit often. In talking to some of my friends who have also moved away for residencies, I realized that I am really spoiled by how often our family members come to visit us. It's so great being able to see our family so often.

My Mom spoiled us, and we just had a wonderful time together. I am already counting down the days until her next visit.

As soon as I have a computer again, I will post some pictures.

Happy Birthday

2009-11-10T17:19:00.002-08:00

Leah enjoying her cake

Audrey looking confused

The cake that took a long time to make

Smile girls, it's your birthdat

Thanks to my wonderful friends Liz and Rachel for helping me with these invitations

I can't believe that these two little girls are now one year old. What an adventure raising twins has been. I have learned a lot, and have grown a lot. Life with these two is beyond busy. I didn't know a lot in raising twins, but there was one thing I knew for certain. That being that when they turned one we were going to have a huge celebration. Making it through the first year of raising twins is quite an accomplishment if I don't say so myself, and we survived. Our hair might be turning gray now but we did it, that's the most important part. We had an open house Candy Land themed birthday party with lots of food, and lots of people. I got too busy hosting the party and don't really have a whole lot of pictures from the party. Just imagine lots of people, lots of food, and lots of presents. It was so fun. Leah and Audrey enjoyed their cake, and enjoyed their visit with Grandma who was also here to celebrate their first birthday.

2009-11-10T17:19:00.001-08:00

Kelsie-ism's

2009-11-04T06:43:00.001-08:00

I sure do love this little girl, and as always she makes me laugh so hard. Other times she about brings me to tears. Here are some of her recent ramblings.

This week one of her pet frogs died. With tears in her eyes she told me that the frogs heart had run out of pumps.

Kelsie went to McDonald's today and as she was playing in the play land, some little boys about her age told her that they were going to kill her. As she was re-telling this story to Alyssa she said that she had the worstest day in her life because some mean guys told her that they were going to kill her and if they didn't kill her then they were going to bite her.

On the night of Halloween Kelsie told Alyssa that if she didn't want to go trick-or treating then she would just go for her and would give her all of her candy.

While working on a coloring contest for a local pet store, I explained to the girls that if they won then they would get a $30 gift certificate and asked them what they would buy. Alyssa said that she would probably buy a ferret until Kevin told her that those were way more than $30.00. Kelsie then pipes up and says, " Alyssa, when we get older if you still want a ferret then I will buy you one with my money okay?"

Kelsie has been asking about her Great-Grandma Wheeler. Grandma Wheeler died before Kelsie was born but we have a book about Grandma's life, and we often read through the book together. In the book, it talks about Grandma Wheeler's love of the Christmas holiday. She often made dolls and other homemade gifts that she would pass out at the family parties which Kelsie thought was awesome. In talking to my girls one night about the reason why we celebrate Christmas, Alyssa answered first and said that we celebrate Christmas because of the birth of Jesus. Kelsie was quick to tell Alyssa that she was wrong and that the reason why we celebrate Christmas was because of Grandma Wheeler.

I have never seen a more caring, giving, selfless child than Kelsie. She has a heart of gold, and some of the things that come out of that little girl's mouth are just beyond touching. She is constantly thinking of others and puts the needs of others before her own. If you ask me that's pretty impressive for a four year old.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

Alyssa the karate master

Kelsie the witch

Leah the butterfly and Audrey the white tiger

Audrey made the cutest tiger cub

kids say the darndest things

2009-11-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

As I was sitting in the living room one night, Alyssa popped in looking like this. She says to me, "Mom, I look like you did when you were having the twins." Pretty close if you ask me

Aren't we all poor?

2009-10-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-20T15:01:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-10-20T14:59:00.001-07:00

2009-10-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-18T18:43:00.001-07:00

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!"

2009-10-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-12T17:51:00.001-07:00

caramel apple suckers

2009-10-12T17:12:00.001-07:00

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!‏

2009-10-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

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.'

a want? or a need? you be the judge!

2009-09-29T11:20:00.001-07:00

Kendra this is all your fault. Ever since I saw this cute piece of furniture in your living room, I have been obsessing over someday owning my own. Wouldn't this look so cute in my upstairs family room?

My problem is this: I'm not much of a home decorator. My sister-in-law is so good at it, and just has a natural eye for that kind of thing but I have none. Our good friend Scott also has a eye for decorating. Where are you Scott and Terra when I need you most?

See, for instance I look at my wood floor and naturally think that I need to have everything brown to accent the floor. Once I hung up the black mirror I decided that I liked the black with my green couches. Now, I would love this black hall tree to be added to this room. Plus, it would give the kids a place to hang their backpacks and such when they walk through the door. Instead of me always having to remind them to pick up their backpacks off of the floor. Last but not least, our hall closet is really a non-functioning closet because of the duct work, the closet has hardly any space.

Want?or a need? I'll let you be the judge.

Audrey Badaudrey

2009-09-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

Well, we needed something to call Audrey for short and couldn't come up with much so Alyssa decided to start calling her Audrey Badaudrey. It works I guess, and so the name has stuck.

Just like Kevin wasn't set on having a daughter named Leah, I wasn't set on having a daughter named Audrey. It sounded really old-fashioned to me, and I just didn't really like the name in all honesty. When Kevin and I were living in student housing, we were the nursery teachers in our old ward. We had the cutest little girl named Audrey in our class, and we loved her dearly. She was the smartest little girl too. Anyway, so it wasn't that the name Audrey rubbed me wrong because of someone I didn't like named Audrey or anything. I just didn't envision naming our daughter Audrey. Well, it worked out great, and we had a baby for each of us to name. Kevin chose Audrey, and I chose Leah. It turns out that Audrey is quite a popular name here in the south. Everywhere we go it seems as though we are always running into another little girl named Audrey. The name has definitely grown on me, and this little girl along with her sisters have a special place in my heart.

Audrey continues to follow the pattern of our older girls where she is not wanting to crawl or stand on her own yet. She has the army crawl down pat but that's about all that she is interested in at the moment as far as developmental skills are concerned. I mentioned before that our pediatrician was worried about her head size. Her head is in the 97% percentile, where her weight is only in the 50%. I wasn't worried so much about it because she follows in the same pattern as Alyssa and Kelsie did when they were little, and eventually their big heads caught up with the rest of their bodies. My pediatrician would not stop talking about her head size, and every time I would take her in for a check-up she would mention time and time again how worried she was about Audrey's head. She even thought that her forehead looked like it was protruding. Also she was concerned that Audrey's soft spot was not closing, and really wanted Audrey to undergo an MRI to make sure that she didn't have anything wrong with her. I didn't feel like an MRI was necessary, nor did I feel it was necessary to sedate a ten month old child for a major expensive test and asked her if there was anything else that we could try instead. She agreed to let us try an ultrasound instead. Well, we went ahead and did the ultrasound and Audrey passed with flying colors. Everything in that big head of hers looks wonderful. There are no abnormalities whatsoever except for the fact that because she is a twin, she is constantly getting compared to her sister by our pediatrician. If Audrey is not doing everything exactly like Leah is doing then there seems to be cause for concern. I know not to worry because even though they are twins, they are not going to do everything alike all of the time. They have always been complete opposites and I don't mind one bit. I like that they have their own looks and their own personalities. It's been a lot of fun watching them grow up, and I am a little sad to think that they will be turning one year old in 6 weeks. Where has the time gone? I have really tried to make sure that their first year wasn't just a blur in my memory, and to be honest there were times when it probably was, and other times just seemed so perfectly normal. I sometimes think of my life before my twins came into it, and it seemed as though I was more stressed out then. With having twins, I have learned to slow down more, and to take time to smell the roses. I have learned to let things go, and that the most important job that I can be doing right now is raising these four little girls who soon won't be so little anymore. One lady who has also has twin girls said to me the other day, "Don't worry, soon your babies will be going to kindergarten like mine, and it really does get better." I just looked and her and said, "I am not ready to send them to kindergarten." Seriously, I can't think of that right now. I just am trying to enjoy each moment with my girls.

I need to catch some zzzzzzz's

2009-09-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

It's now two hours past my usual bedtime, and I really should try to get some sleep but I am pathetic and can't sleep when my husband is at work. He has been working nights on and off most of our married life, and I still can't sleep without him here. I thought that it would get easier as time went on, but it doesn't.

I also haven't been feeling really great so that doesn't help things either. My sickness started about two weeks ago. It was around the time that I got my first tumor shrinking injection. I thought that maybe it was something in the injection that was making me sick but I am not sure what is going on with me. I have had a lot of GI issues along with flu-like symptoms. I was in a lot of pain last week and so my doctor sent me to have an ultrasound of my gallbladder. Apparently, one of the biggest side effects of this injection is gallbladder problems. I am following up with an internist tomorrow afternoon to see if they have any answers for me. My biggest complaint now is that my neck is so stiff that I can hardly turn my head from side to side. In the middle of the night, I just start getting cold sweats and then chills immediately following. Oh, this medical stuff is driving me crazy. I wish my doctors could just figure out something that could work for this tumor. I feel like every course of treatment recommended is just an experiment, and I don't have time for experiments. I need something that is going to work. I have four kids and a husband who depend on me. The show has got to go on.

Leah tortilla

2009-09-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to have a daughter named Leah. Kevin was never quite sure about the name but I was always certain that one day I would have a daughter and her name would be Leah. My middle name is Leigh, and also Leah was my Great Grandmother's name. I guess between the two, I just really liked the sound of the name Leah.

Out of all of my girls, I think Leah looks the most like me which I have to say I am so happy about. I think our other three look so much like Kevin, and it's fun having at least one that looks like me. Leah even shares my love of Junior Mints. (I mean, I think she does. what kind of Mother would feed her baby Junior Mints anyway?)

Leah is such a sweet natured baby, and I hate to say this but sometimes because Audrey is so high maintenance, I tend to forget about Leah's needs. She is always so patient, and rarely cries except for when it's time to take a nap or time to go to bed.

Leah loves to eat and wants nothing to do with baby food anymore. She wants what we are eating and nothing else. Give her food, and no-one gets hurt. Oh, I love this girl, and I love Kelsie's nickname for her which is Leah tortilla.

Brentwood, Tennessee

2009-09-27T20:15:00.001-07:00

our future home someday?

We went to a fabulous party over the weekend hosted by the Vanderbilt House Alliance. It was held in the beautiful city of Brentwood. Oh, how I love that city. After taking a little tour of the city, I am not so convinced that we are headed back to Utah anytime soon.

Miley Cyrus lives around these parts somewhere, and Alyssa was adamant that she was going to find her house. We looked but we couldn't find her. Better luck next time I guess.

conversations with Kelsie

2009-09-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

Lately this little girl and I have been having the funniest conversations. Our latest conversation went a little something like this:

Kelsie: "Mom, what are those things called again that Dad says that you get when your a teenager.

Mom: thinking to myself, "what on earth has Dad been teaching the kids about?" Umm, what things Kels?"

Kelsie: "You know, the things that you get on your face that will go away."

Mom: zits?

Kelsie: "yeah zits, that's what they are called."

Mom: Sigh of relief, glad that's all she learned about!

2009-09-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's been 20 days since I have had any of this, and you know what? It hasn't been as bad coming off of caffeine as I thought that it would be. I seriously had an addiction that I knew I needed to break. I realized it was a bit of a problem when Kelsie wanted to drink it almost as much as I did. Well, we don't have any of it at our house anymore, and we are done drinking it. We now are Crystal light fans instead.

It's time to get healthy, and I have put it off for long enough. It's time for me to conquer the battle of the bulge instead of letting the battle of the bulge conquer me.

I signed up today for the YMCA which I am very excited about. I went this morning for the first time and was able to run on the indoor track. Daycare is included with the membership which will be great. The best part of the whole exercise experience today was being able to take a shower without crying kids in the background. I could join just to be able to shower without interruptions every day, it was heaven!

Wish me luck with my new exercise regimen. I am so not excited for the pain that comes with exercising but I will be excited to hopefully see some good results soon.

Trauma: Life in the E.R.

2009-09-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

Trauma: Life in the E.R. explores what life is like in an emergency room. Viewers travel to different ERs located throughout the United States to learn the excitement and thrill, trials and tribulations associated with emergency medicine. The program gives insight into how doctors, nurses and patients all interact in the emergency setting and shows what scenarios may be peculiar to specific ERs. Viewers also have the opportunity to travel with emergency medical workers in the field to see the special and often life-threatening situations they face.

Why do you care about all of this? well, because they are filming this TLC series right now at Vanderbilt, and you may soon be seeing my husband, Dr. P on the next episode. That's right, he is a star. He could tell you the story better than I can but he said that they were filming him as he was doing a history and physical on a patient that he was preparing for surgery. He had to sign a release and the whole nine yards. How exciting, too bad we can't be paid per episode viewed or something.

Kevin is not sure when they will air the Vanderbilt episodes, but we will keep you posted.

smoking stinks

2009-09-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

My little Kelsie has had this weird obsession I guess you could say about seeing people smoking. One day as we were out running some errands she says to me, "Look at that guy, he has a smoke stick." I couldn't figure out at first quite what she meant. Finally I realized that she was referring to cigarettes as smoke sticks. She sees "smoke sticks" everywhere and is quick to point them out, and then to add her own comments about how smoking is a bad habit, why you don't want your lungs to turn black, how if you smoke you are going to die, etc... You get the idea. All the general comments that a four year old would make.

So this week I found a candy story that is pretty new to the area. They carry about every kind of candy imaginable but their speciality is vintage candy. Candy you wouldn't be able to find elsewhere; including things like candy cigarettes. For some reason the cigarettes caught my eye. I immediately picked up a box and placed them in my basket. I guess I really wanted to bring them home for Kevin as sort of a joke. ( They were his favorite candy as a kid okay.) I get the cigarettes home, and the kids immediately ask about them. We tell them that they are candy smoke sticks. I know, it's a little hypocritical telling your kids that they shouldn't smoke and then preceding to let them eat candy cigarettes. We are bad parents what can we say?

Does anyone else remember having these? or were your parents actually better examples than we are, and didn't let you touch the things.

Alyssa's Labor Day weekend

2009-09-08T04:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we were off to a good start let's just say that. Friday night Alyssa had a sleepover with her friend Allee, and had a wonderful time. Saturday was spent being with Kevin on his birthday. Later that night Alyssa went over to Allee's for a swim party. Sunday was spent at church, and all went well there. Monday we headed out to see some friends in Franklin to spend the day together with them for a barbecue, and that's when disaster struck. We all had been playing volleyball together, and were having a great time. I happened to take a quick break to take care of the babies when all of a sudden I looked up to see Kevin doing a great serve. I watched Alyssa run over and give her Dad a hug, and then all of a sudden I see this baseball go flying over the net as well, which just so happens to be heading Alyssa's way. The baseball hit her eye, and man does she have a nice shiner? She is our first and I hope last daughter to have a black eye. I feel so bad for her. Even since yesterday it looks ten times worse. She's really embarrased that we took pictures, and doesn't want anyone to see her like this. I kept her out of school today just so that we could continue icing it. Oh, poor girl! There is always something isn't there?

Guess whose birthday is today?

2009-09-05T04:52:00.000-07:00

Any guesses?

YES, it's cute little Kevin's birthday today. I am not sure how old he is in either of these pictures but I think he looks so cute. I especially love his red hair, and can't believe that now his hair is so dark. I should rephrase that, I can't believe his hair used to be so dark.

Kevin does not tell many people when his birthday is, he had me convinced that it was a government secret. I am glad to have finally figured out when this cute little baby was born.

Well, we have a good day planned for Kevin, and it will be nice to have him home for a three day weekend. Happy Birthday Honey! We love you lots!

guinea pigs, best friends, fun, and more

2009-09-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Alyssa

Alyssa was ecstatic when she was able to take her class pet home for the weekend. Let's just say that Max the guinea pig was a very messy house guest. It made me kind of happy when we were able to take him back to school. She did love taking care of him though, we even went to see the movie G-force in Max's behalf.

Alyssa is enjoying the second grade and seems to be making lots of new friends. Her newest friend of maybe I should say foe is a boy named Simon who chases Alyssa and her friend around at recess. Tonight we are having a sleepover in honor of Simon because he doesn't chase her around the playground as much. The sleepover was all Alyssa's idea trust me.

Alyssa has become a teenager overnight, she is on the phone constantly. It always seems to be right about the time that I need to use the phone too. I don't know what I will do when all four girls are yakking on the phone all day.

Kelsie

Kelsie's new highlight besides starting preschool is that she also started dance. She and Alyssa are both taking ballet, and so far it seems to be going well. We have never done dance lessons before so this is a first.

Kelsie has an obsession with hair already. She loves doing her own hair as well as creating hair-do's for Leah and Audrey. I am amazed how well she does. Kelsie is all about fashion and changes her outfits and hair constantly all day long. She even gets Alyssa's clothes for her.

Kelsie has the biggest heart and is so concerned with her sisters well being. She adores her big sister and loves being a big sister to Leah and Audrey. I can't believe how fast time flies. It doesn't seem that long ago that we brought this little black-haired bundle home from the hospital. To think that she is almost five years old is crazy.

Kelsie's best friend Maya returned home from her long 3 1/2 week vacation and boy were those the longest 3 1/2 weeks of both mine and Kelsie's lives. We are so glad that Maya is back.

We have a crazy life but it's a good life, and I wouldn't change it for the world!

Kelsie's first day of preschool

2009-09-04T04:58:00.000-07:00

Kelsie was so excited for her first day of preschool,and she just looked like a million bucks in her cute outfit from Sam's club. Preschool doesn't start until 9:00 a.m. She woke up at 7:15 a.m. and couldn't wait to get going. I told her that she had to have some breakfast first and she maybe ate 2 bites of her eggs. We loaded up everyone in the car around 8:30 a.m. knowing that the drive takes less than 5 minutes. We went for a little drive and even had to wait in the preschool parking lot for a while. Her preschool is actually inside of a church, and her first comment when we pulled up was, "wow, I am the luckiest girl in the world because I get to go to preschool in a castle." It was so cute! She had a very good day, and enjoyed every minute. Her best friend Maya is also in her class and she is very excited about that as well.

I didn't know what to do with myself not having Kelsie around. The day was quite boring to be honest. I really missed her, and especially missed not being asked to play Memory for the 100th time.

2009-09-04T04:57:00.001-07:00

2009-09-04T04:56:00.001-07:00

sibling rivalry

2009-09-04T04:49:00.000-07:00

There isn't enough fighting in this house between Kelsie and Alyssa so now our twins have decided to become part of the action too. They fight non-stop over everything but mainly toys. I never understood it when people told me that I should have two of every toy, they should be matching and everything. Now I get it. These two videos were 2 days apart. Can you believe these two? Usually Leah is the instigator while Audrey is usually the victim. Sometimes I can't help but laugh at their fighting which I know is going to get old really quick.

We have an artist on our hands

2009-09-04T04:43:00.000-07:00

Should an almost ten month old already know how to draw on walls? Well, she does! I came into our office downstairs the other day and found Leah intact with a pencil in her hand. She was holding onto the wall with one hand while she did her lovely artwork with the other. Here is the proof. Leah what are we going to do with you?

2009-09-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

I've definitely been in blog hiatus lately, and I have wanted nothing to do with blogging or reading blogs. To be just completely honest I just haven't been feeling myself lately. The stress of kids, life, and medical problems has just almost become unbearable. I kind of knew that something was wrong with me a couple of weeks ago when I took my twins in for their check-up. I asked our pediatrician if she wanted to call the Division of Child and Family services on me. She pretty much gave me the weirdest look and sweetly said, "no way, you are a great Mom, and don't you doubt yourself for one minute." I then went on to tell her all of the things that I felt made me a bad Mom. The list was long, and I don't really feel like mentioning them all. Again, her reply was something like, "you are too hard on yourself, and your expectations are ridiculous." Were my expectations of myself too high? It was definitely something to think about. Over the course of the last few weeks, I have realized that my expectations aren't too high, they are IMPOSSIBLE! What I expect of myself is perfection and unfortunately I am never going to be perfect. I guess that's why I had to stop reading blogs for a while because I felt like people had such a false sense of perfection. In blogs you can be anything you want to be. Whoever says that everyday is filled with rainbows and sunshine is lying! Life sucks sometimes that's just all there is to it. I do believe in optimism and think that you should try to see the good in every situation but sometimes there is no good. Take last week for example. I went in to see the neurosurgeon for my follow-up. He did not have any good news for me, in fact he had bad news. That being that what he thought was tumor was actually scar tissue. He barely removed any of my brain tumor, and now I get to have a lovely shot in my rear end every month in hopes that we can shrink this tumor. If that doesn't work then we will go on the path towards radiation. This isn't what I had envisioned but it's what I have been given and therefore I am going to deal with it the best I know how. I am going to focus more on what I am doing right, and focus less on what I am doing wrong. Nobody's perfect including me!

2009-08-20T11:27:00.001-07:00

Big noggins are a sign of intelligence right?

2009-08-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

Last week I was told that this little girl has a big noggin. Her head circumference is 18 1/4 which doesn't seem terrible to me for a nine month old, but because it's in the 97th percentille the pediatrican seems to be more worried about it then she needs to be. I have a big head, Kelsie has a big head, and so far we have turned out fine. I think little Audrey is sweet, big head and all.

simplicity

2009-08-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking lately about simplicity, it's true that life really doesn't need to be so complicated but yet we tend to make it that way. We think our children need to be involved in everything under the sun but what we really need are more simple, quiet moments. Speaking of simplicity, I just have to tell you this story.

So Alyssa has been in school now for almost three weeks. Instead of complaining about how early she wakes up, she's always happy in the mornings and ready to start a new day. She takes a home lunch every day which consists of a peanut butter sandwich, a capri sun, some pretzels, sometimes yogurt, and then some other little snack. I have tried to make her different kinds of sandwiches but she insists on peanut butter. The other day, Alyssa is talking out loud to Kelsie and Kevin about how a smashed peanut butter sandwich tastes the same as a non-smashed sandwich. I ask her if her sandwich from lunch was smashed, and she then tells me that her sandwich has been smashed every day since school started. The crazy girl never even bothered to tell me that her sandwich was getting smashed every day. Apparently the soft lunchbox that we bought her this year wasn't working as well as the hard back lunch box that we used last year. Problem solved and I starting making her lunch in her old lunch box, no more squished sandwiches. What I love so much about Alyssa is her sweet personality. She sees the good in every situation and rarely complains. A simple peanut butter sandwhich and she is happy as a clam. I can't put cute love notes in her lunch box anymore, apparently that's not cool anymore but she does tell me outloud that she loves me, and that's all that matters.

On your mark, get set, GO!!!

2009-08-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

Out of our four girls, I think Leah is going to be the only one that starts walking before the age of 15 months. She can pull herself up to things, she can crawl which is something that also seems to take our kids forever to learn, and she will walk when you hold onto her hands. She just wants to GO! We made this video of her crawling. Watch out world, here she comes.

2009-08-12T12:29:00.001-07:00

2009-08-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we attended a fundraiser dinner which was held at the preschool that Kelsie will be attending in the fall. If you remember in one of my previous posts, I mentioned how expensive preschool is here. It was way beyond our budget. Well, Kelsie was able to get a full scholarship and now will be able to attend preschool. She is so ecstatic, and can't wait to go.

Anyway, this fundraiser dinner that we attended was so much fun. The food was great, and the entertainment was a lot of fun also. Alyssa and Kelsie learned how to square dance, and just had the best time. I have always wanted to learn how to square dance, wouldn't that be fun? Unfortunately, I would have to do it alone because my husband isn't at all interested. What fun is he?

At this party they also had a cakewalk, and Alyssa won a cake. (I swear, that girl has the best luck, and seems to be always winning something.)

Anyway, here are some cute pictures from the party.

1 week of school down, many more to go!

2009-08-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

We survived the first week of school, so far there haven't been any mishaps. (unless of course you count that Alyssa's school is completely without air conditioning.) Apparently, they are working on getting it fixed. It's been pretty hot here so hopefully they will fix it soon.

Alyssa seems to be adjusting to life in second grade, she even gets her own locker this year just like she had in kindergarten. She has made some new friends, and is enjoying her teacher along with the new class pet, Max the guinea pig.

I really have missed having Alyssa home, and Kelsie misses her too. All day long Kelsie asks the same question, "When is Lyss coming home?" We hope that all continues to go well in the second grade.

Oh how I hate cars

2009-08-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

We have owned several different cars throughout our ten years of marriage and most of them were anything but nice. We had the cars without the air conditioning that we drove in the hot summer months, we had the nice car that would die every time you stopped, we had the car that would overheat if you drove it too much, we had the car without a heater that we drove during the cold winter months, and let's not forget the Buick that we drove that was given the nickname POS. Trust me, it lived up to it's name.

It's true, I am grateful that my cars have usually been able to get me from point A-point b in a normal amount of time, but today ladies and gentleman my car can get me NOWHERE! I guess you really do get what you pay for as I am slowly learning. At the time we bought this van otherwise referred to as our behemoth, I thought that it would be great, after all it was such a great price, it seemed like it was in decent condition, and most importantly, we could fit our entire brood in the thing.

After purchasing the 2001 piece of hud for $4500 we slowly started having problems with it. The check engine light started coming on, and we could not get the thing to pass emissions to save our lives, even after having it cleared by a mechanic who deemed that there was nothing wrong with it. Let's just say that I have been spending a lot of time learning about cars, and one of the things that I did learn was that since this is a Toyota vehicle, you have to get the codes checked at an actual Toyota dealership. After the Toyota dealership diagnosed the problem, I was on my way to the mechanic who I normally use. He replaced several of the belts, the fuel canister had issues, and then replaced the water pump. Mind you that this work was just done less than a month ago. This cost us close to $800.00.

Of course this morning we have a million things to do. We need to drop off Alyssa's friend after her sleepover last night, take Alyssa to meet her friend Zach who she will be spending the day with, and last but not least, we have a party for Vanderbilt that we need to be at. The van is having major issues, and we can't get it to idle very well, and the thing just keeps dying. Kevin's frustrated at this point, I am frustrated at this point, now what? We load the older kids in Kevin's car, take the babies out of the van, and he heads off to the party alone.

Kevin just called me and said that they are now heading home from the party after only being there for 10 minutes, good thing they drove all of the way to Nashville for NOTHING! Apparently Kelsie threw a tantrum and doesn't want to be at the party anymore. The party was held at an inflatable bounce play place. Sometimes, I seriously wonder why as parents that we even try to have a good time with our kids. That could be it's own subject so I won't go there right now.

I just want to get this stupid van fixed, and not worry about car problems anymore! Hopefully the rest of the day will go better than it has been going.

it could be worse...

2009-08-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

I know what you will be thinking after you all see these pictures, you will be saying to yourself, "wait, aren't those pictures of your house Trisha?" Sorry to let you down Rob, these actually aren't pictures of my house. These pictures were taken in an actual apartment in Houston during the evacuation before the hurricane hit. Yes, you heard right, before the hurricane hit. Talk about disgusting. How do you even take a shower in a bathroom that looks like that? Who knows what kind of toxic mold is growng all over that couch. YUCK! My house may not be spic-n-span all of the time but I know that I can be grateful that it doesn't ever look like this.

and the Mother of the year award goes to.....

2009-08-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

-The mother of nine month old twins who decided to put them on her bed after she knows how fast they get around, and could fall off. Which by the way did happen to one of them who ended up falling onto her head and has a nice goose egg to prove it.

-This same mother went to the grocery store and forgot to strap one of her babies into her stroller, and the other twin sister managed to fall right onto the floor at the grocery store.

-Yeah, let's not forget that this lady who claims to be a good Mom also forgot that she had a follow-up appoinment to check her four year daughter's spleen who has also been sick with mono. That's not important or anything!

..I guess we can just assume that this Mother's brain isn't functioning all that well since school started yesterday and she now wakes up at the crack of dawn. I know that you are all jealous that you can't be waking up at 5:45 a.m to get your child ready for school.

Taylor Swift

2009-08-06T10:44:00.000-07:00

It's the Taylor Swift concert in our house between Alyssa and Kelsie both seeing the song, "love story" non-stop. The song is played over, and over, and over again. I must admit that I do like Kelsie's version of the song.

Rodeo take me somewhere we can be alone.

I'll be the prince and you'll be the princess.

It's a love story, so baby just say YES

Good news on the home front

2009-08-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

First thing this morning I recieved a call from our very cute and pregnant pediatrician. She informed me that Kelsie's lab work looks okay. It turns out that she not only has mono but also has strep. Her iron levels are a little low but that is probably due to her being sick at the moment. Kelsie has been on her antibiotics now for three days and seems to be feeling a lot better. She is almost back to her spunky and crazy self which is a plus. Next week we will be following up with the pediatrician just to check her spleen again. Other than that, there are no major worries.

Kelsie is so excited for preschool, and she even recieved a full scholarship. She and Alyssa are also going to start ballet next month and they are so excited. Today they had to try on their new leotards, tights, and ballet shoes. After they got dressed, they handed me an invitation to their dance perfomance. The invitation was hand written by Alyssa and said the following:

dear mom and dad go to the family room and bring the babies

when August 1st
time 12:58 (sharp)
no rsvp

please make it

These little girls are growing up way too fast. These really are the good times!

Leah and Audrey happenings

2009-07-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

Can I just start by telling you that packing around 40 lbs. worth of babies isn't as easy as you may imagine it. Another funny story is that my husband asked me the other day how I was going to grocery shop once the babies were in bigger car seats because I wouldn't be able to just put them in the grocery cart anymore. Ummm hello, the babies have been in bigger car seats now for almost two months. I take four kids to the store whenever I go. I put the babies in their stroller while Alyssa or I push the grocery cart. When I told him this, he seemed puzzled as to how that worked. Trust me, it just works. To me, going from 2-4 kids has been a lot easier than going from 1-2 kids. I find that I have a lot of shortcuts that I would die without, and things don't always work out as planned but I am finally learning that I have to let some things go. There is no other way that I would be able to function.

Leah and Audrey are such good babies, they are babbling non-stop, Leah is about a month behind Audrey on motor skills where Leah is about a month ahead of Audrey on developmental skills. Leah is now crawling, sitting-up, and can almost pull herself up to standing while holding on to things. Audrey doesn't need to know how to do any of these things because she is just capable of getting into EVERYTHING just by rolling around. Leah is still the more aggressive one and she loves tormenting Audrey by pulling her hair. At first we thought that she was just doing it without realizing what she was doing but boy were we wrong. She does it intentionally, and then will just smile when we tell her to stop. Both girls have two teeth on the bottom, and they look so cute with them. I can't believe that they are almost 9 months old now, they are seriously growing way too fast. Oh how I love my four girls!

Alyssa happenings

2009-07-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

This little girl who is not so little anymore starts school in only 6 more days. Oh, how I am going to miss her while she is gone at school. She has been such a good helper to me and takes such great care of her sisters. The summer went by way too fast. I really enjoy having all of my kids home for the summer, call me weird but I love it. I get a little emotional when they go back to school.

Alyssa will be entering the second grade, and she says that she is not excited to go back to school. I know that she will do great once she actually gets settled in.

The majority of Alyssa's summer break was spent swimming. A couple of times I wondered if she was going to start growing some fins, talk about a fish.

Another thing we are going to miss is sleeping in. Oh, how I don't want to start waking up at 5:45 a.m. again but it's time I guess.

What a great summer that it has been, now let real life begin...

Kelsie happenings

2009-07-30T06:02:00.000-07:00

I am worried sick about this little girl. She just hasn't been herself lately. It started about a week or so ago. I noticed that she seemed really tired. Too tired to play, too tired to eat, I am talking completely lethargic. At church last Sunday, she was almost asleep on my lap during sacrament meeting which never is the case. She even fell asleep the other day while playing the wii. The only other symptom I noticed with her was that she looked really pale, but still I wasn't really concerned. I just figured that maybe she was just trying to fight off a cold or something. Yesterday morning I had more of a concern when I kept going in to check on her and she still was not awake. She is an early riser and rarely sleeps past about 7:30 a.m during the summer. After checking on her three times, she seemed as though she did not want to wake up. She finally woke up at 9:00 a.m. I called over to our pediatricians office and spoke with the phone nurse who advised me that I needed to bring Kelsie in right away. I gathered up the girls and off we headed to see the doctor. The doctor came in to look at Kelsie, checked her over, and just had a very concerning look on her face. She informed me that Kelsie's spleen was very enlarged, she had white patchy spots on her tonsils, and she was also concerned that Kelsie had lost 6 pounds since last being seen 6 months prior. All of the symptoms that Kelsie presented with assured the doctor that Kelsie had Mononucleosis, which is the long word for mono. I was shocked, and had no idea that children could even get mono. Apparently they can. Mono does cause your spleen to be enlarged, it also causes you to be extremely lethargic, and the white patches on your throat are also a symptom, however weight loss is not usually a symptom which still is a worry. The doctor informed me that other serious illnesses could also be a factor in the reason Kelsie's spleen is enlarged. They did do some lab work on Kelsie to see about things like leukemia which is never what you want to hear as a Mother, especially when it hits so close to home. My uncle was diagnosed with Leukemia as a child, he was only 3 1/2 years old when he passed away. The good news though is that Kelsie's complete blood count looked really good which makes the doctor think at this point we can just go ahead and assume that she has mono and nothing more serious. We will get the rest of our lab work back hopefully by tomorrow. It is still a worry, but I am just trying not to get all worked up. I am going to wait for the results from her lab work, and we will go from there. In the meantime, I am hoping to avoid getting mono. That's the last thing that I need right now.

2009-07-29T18:13:00.001-07:00

2009-07-29T17:53:00.001-07:00

My Mom flew home two nights ago, and things just haven't been the same around here. She was here for for a little over half of the month, and it was so great having her. She did the majority of the cleaning, cooking, shopping, you name it and she did it. She also brought my niece Gabby with her, and the girls all had so much fun playing together. Alyssa cried all the way home from the airport after we had to drop off my Mom and Gabby. It's so hard being away from family especially for kids.

My Mom already has her next flight booked for November and will be here for Audrey and Leah's first birthday. How fun will that be? I can't wait!

The next time she comes hopefully will be a little more exciting. I felt like we weren't able to do a whole lot just with the surgery and all, but we still managed to do some fun things together.

We love you Mom, and miss you already. Captain D's, Ben & Jerry's, and the he-she are begging you to come back!

2009-07-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

My heart is so full tonight as I am just thinking about all of the things that I would like to blog about. Where do I even begin? I guess that I will start by saying how grateful I feel to be living in Tennessee. You all know how I felt about moving to Tennessee. I pictured our family moving maybe a few states away from Utah, never in a million years did I imagine us moving clear across the country. When Kevin applied for residency programs, he considered my feelings greatly and wanted to move to only the places where I felt comfortable living. I felt great about the programs he had chosen all except for one residency program which was in Nashville, Tennessee. Now you have to realize how the residency program works. It's not like you just decide where you want to do your residency and then magically that's where you get to go. If only it were that easy. Here's how it works. As a student you submit your top picks for residency programs which are sent to a central computer. At the same time, residency programs throughout the country submit their own lists, ranking candidates based on grades, interviews and recommendations. This computer system then spits out the name of the residency program that you will be going to. Here's where it gets a little interesting. Since Kevin knew how much I didn't want to come to Tennessee, he lowered Vanderbilt on his list, meaning that there would be a much lower chance that we would move out here. Apparently, his ranking didn't mean much because we still ended up here. Coincidence? Maybe? If the ranking worked the way it should have, we would be doing our residency at a completely different program, it shouldn't have worked out that we matched at Vanderbilt. There's just no way around it.

I am getting used to living in the south, life seems to be moving along when BAM I am hit with some more big news. As if having twins, frozen pipes, and a house flood aren't enough to deal with all in a years time. My tumor is back, and in a year it has almost doubled in size. I head to Vanderbilt, consult with a Neurosurgeon who informs me that I am in the best hands possible. I think to myself, "sure, that's what they all say." After failing medication therapy, I decide that my only choice is to go through yet another brain surgery. Surgery is done, and I feel beyond amazing. How could this be? When I had the first surgery it took months for me to feel like I could do even the simplest task. I had to take pain pills for several weeks, and couldn't tell you who came to visit, or what went on. The pain that I felt afterwards was horrendous. Of course I expected that this time around, things wouldn't be any different but they were different. I am a survivor yet again, I made it through and all went well. To top it all off, I find out that at Vanderbilt this is the biggest pituitary clinic in the world. We are talking 80 of these exact surgeries happen per month. Patients fly in from all over the world for the chance to be operated at Vanderbilt. Let me ask you, " Do you think that this is a coincidence that we ended up here?" I think not.

I am not a believer that things happen merely just by chance. I believe that all things happen for a reason. There is no way that moving out here happened coincidentally. Even when we moved out here, my Mom would always tell me that maybe the reason why we were headed here was for my health. I strongly believe that my health is one of many reasons why we ended up here.

Many wonderful experiences have happened to me throughout this complicated medical journey, and I don't need to share with you every single detail but overall miracles were performed. There is no other explanation plain and simple.

I also received my hospital bill and can you believe that for one day in the hospital, my bill came to $37,000.00. This was only the bill for the inpatient hospital services, and this does not include any of the professional fees. Even with our insurance coverage we would still have to pay 10% of this bill, but like I mentioned before. Miracles keep happening over and over again. For this entire hospital stay, we will be paying NOTHING! Vanderbilt has been so good to us, and I can't express my thanks enough to such an incredible hospital who is so equipped to handle any situation at any given time. Again, I ask you. "Coincidence?" to which I reply, "not a chance"

Thank you again for your outpouring of love and support, I feel great, and know that I will continue to heal each day. With much love sent to all of you!

72 hours after surgery

2009-07-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

So far I am still feeling great. I am actually feeling too great, and I have to keep reminding myself that I just had brain surgery and what I should be doing is relaxing and taking it EASY. Well, I haven't been too good at the whole relaxing part and I went shopping tonight with my Mom and sister. My sister April leaves tomorrow and I am so sad to see her go back to Utah. We have had so much fun together. It was nice to get out tonight for a little girls night out shopping. She bought me the cutest dress, how sweet is that? I should be buying her something. We have been spoiled like always, my Mom always does a great job of that. My Mom will be here for about 11 more days, and I am so excited that she gets to stay. I wish that April could stay here with her but I know that she needs to get back to work.

I'm back

2009-07-16T13:46:00.001-07:00

Well I survived yet another brain surgery, let's hope it's the last. I think Kevin gave you a pretty good report, and that's that the surgeons as well as the entire medical staff that took care of me did a FANTASTIC job. I have to brag about the anesthesia department, my do those guys know how to do a great job. To come out of surgery without throwing up gallons of blood was a plus. I was sure than when I woke up I hadn't even had surgery yet. I don't have any kind of packing in my nose, and just with the normal eye, you can't even tell that I had surgery. I am telling you, miracles were performed.

The most painful part of the surgery was getting the screws in place. I did this the day before surgery, and got myself so worked up about getting them that when it came for the appointment, I was beyond nervous. I did fairly well until I saw part of my hair falling to the ground. They did have to cut some of my hair in order to place the screws. I know that I have plenty of hair but it was still hard seeing my locks coming off in clumps. I have a new appreciation for chemo patients and I can't imagine having to go through what they do. Surprisingly getting the screws in place didn't hurt as much as I imagined it would. They numbed up the areas well and then put the screws in. After the numbing agent wore off after a few hours was when the real pain set in. It also didn't help that I hit one of the screws on the car door, and so it started bleeding profusely. Kevin had to apply some pressure to stop the bleeding, and I though that I was going to go through the roof. It hurt so bad! Sleeping with the screws in also wasn't comfortable at all. They also had to put some round stickers all over my face. I really looked like an alien, it was quite entertaining to walk through the hospital and see people's reaction to me.

Surgery took about four hours, and all went well. The Neurosurgeon was happy with the size of the tumor that he was able to remove. My wish was granted and I was able to leave the hospital within 24 hours. I don't know what it is about being in a hospital that I hate so bad, but I am always determined to get out as fast as I can. I am taking it easy, and have been sleeping a lot. I hate taking pain pills but I am taking them anyway. I will be following up in six weeks with a radiation/oncologist for more lovely treatment. They have talked about doing the gamma knife but I am not exactly sure which route of radiation that we are going to try for sure. When the Neurosurgeon came to see me after surgery, he told me that I should be a poster child for this surgery because he said that I had a huge smile on my face after coming out of surgery. I thought that was so funny. I wonder what other crazy things I did during surgery. I know right before I went into surgery, I told him that he better take the * * * * screws out of my head. I got the screws out and now have staples to deal with instead.

Well, it's time to rest so I better go. We are truly blessed, and I can't help but think that one of the reasons that we were sent out to Tennessee was for me to receive such excellent medical care. Vanderbilt has one of the top pituitary clinics in the world. How amazing is that?

New Management

2009-07-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

So while Trish's posts are on hiatus, I've been put in charge of updating the blog. This will make for much less entertaining posts, but bear with me. So important news first. Trish had her surgery yesterday, and she is doing great. They got out as much tumor as they could safely, and everything went pretty straight forward. She is feeling really well right now, no vomiting or pain. In fact, she's hoping to make it home today, although I don't know what the chances of that are. She will likely get out of the ICU today, so that will be nice. I'm at the hospital right now, so I can't put any pictures up, but she's looking great. Hopefully some of the lines and tubes should start coming out soon. Sorry about the late post, I spent yesterday helping out Trish, and getting her two (yes, two!) Ben and Jerry's milk shakes. Maybe I should spend some time in the hospital. Anyway, we really thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers, and I'll try to keep everyone updated. I'll pass any comments on to Trish.

Happy 10 year anniversary

2009-07-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

My how time flies. This is one of many of our engagement photos. We haven't changed much have we? What, you didn't know Kevin had hair? Well, he did. Even though his hair is now turning gray and he doesn't have much left, he is still the love of my life. I do have to add one more thing about this photo, and that is how I would love to be this size again. If only I could still wear these jeans. My, what having four kids can do to a woman.

Yes, yesterday was our 10 year anniversary and we had a great night. We were supposed to go to the temple but Kevin got home kind of late so we didn't have time to go. We did end up going to dinner here, and I have to just say that I have never tasted such a delicious steak.

I had heard nothing but rave reviews about Ruth's Chris and since this is our diamond anniversary, I thought that we could splurge a little. (okay maybe a lot) but it was so worth every penny.

Marrying Kevin has been the greatest decision that I have ever made. I often joke that I got the better end of the deal. We have grown a lot in the 10 years that we have been married, Love is definitely what we are going through.. Together.

Anniversary musings

10-years of marriage

9-cars that we have owned

8-years of schooling

7-trips I hope to go on someday when we are done paying off our student loans

6-people in our lovely family

5-places of residence

4-GIRLS

3-years of residency left to go

2-people in love

1-year of residency COMPLETED and MANY more to go!

tests, tests, and more useless tests

2009-07-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

I am finally home after a long and exhausting day at Vanderbilt. I left my house a little after 12:00 this afternoon and did not arrive back until 5:45 this evening. I am not the most patient person especially when it has to do with sitting in waiting rooms with doctors who never seem to ever be on schedule. I was going to take the girls with me and am so glad that I didn't, but I feel sorry for the two babysitters who had to watch my girls for almost 6 hours today.

So my first appointment was all about what to expect during and after surgery. Basically don't eat or drink after midnight, no gum, no mints, no make-up, no jewelry. blah, blah, blah. In one ear and out the other. Seeing how this appointment was supposed to end within an hour but took almost an hour and a half, not exactly a good sign. Onto my next appointment which was lab work. Can't have surgery without getting a pregnancy test. When the phlebotomist asked me if I was pregnant, my answer was simple. " You know last year was the year of surprises so I guess anything is possible, but I am pretty sure that I am not." After several vials of blood were taken it was time to have a chest x-ray. What? A chest x-ray. Come on, I could understand if I wasn't healthy but what a waste of time. Then it was time to do an EKG even though I have a perfectly healthy heart, and have never had heart problems of any kind. I was loosing my patience so fast, and a couple of times I was getting really short with the staff as they were asking me different questions about my health. Again, lab work was supposed to be done fairly quickly, and my last appointment was scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Seeing how the time was now 4:00 p.m. and I still had one more appointment to go, I knew that things were not looking promising. My last appointment was meeting with the lovely ENT who will be assisting with the surgery. Apparently, he couldn't get enough of just looking through my nasal cavity with a light and decided to stick a metal scope up it instead. My nostril is so sore, oh my gosh. I am not sure it's a good sign either when all that he wanted to talk about is having to work with all of my "scar tissue" He made it perfectly clear that he hated fixing other doctor's work. Like it's my fault that my last ENT wasn't up to par with his standards. Call someone who cares.

I still have some left over valium from my MRI and I think that I may just take it before I go to bed tonight. I have so many mixed emotions right now. Do I cancel the surgery? That's what I feel like doing right at the moment. What a roller coaster ride this has been.

yes it's time for brain surgery

2009-07-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

The time has come and I so wish it hadn't. I feel like I am finally healed completely from my brain surgery that was two years ago, and yet here we are again....

I haven't been able to sleep at all thinking about all that is going to happen. My biggest worry is making sure that my family is taken care of while I am recovering. My Mom will be here but still I have a hard time with letting other people take care of the job that is primarily mine.

The first time that I left Alyssa overnight was when she was three years old. We left her with my Mom while we went to Yellowstone. I think I called to check on her at least five times a day. I thought that it might get easier to leave your children the more you had but I found this to be the complete opposite for me. With our twins, there is no way that I would leave them overnight. In fact, it's our 10 year anniversary in two days, and one of the girls called from the ward wanting to watch the babies overnight so that Kevin and I could go stay somewhere. Kevin was so cute, and told her that he didn't even want to leave the babies. He and I are a lot a like in the fact that we just don't like to leave our kids which isn't a bad thing.

My ward had a special fast for me last Sunday, and I so appreciated it. I had several ward members who approached me just to let me know that they were thinking about me, and that they had been fasting for me. One lady in the ward had back surgery a while back and said that a fast was done for her. She bore her witness to me about fasting. I was also approached by our sweet Bishop's wife, Meredith. She told me that they were explaining the meaning of fasting to their six year old son Zach, and he asked if he could fast for me as well. Thank you to everyone who fasted for me. We have such an incredible ward here. I know that I could call anyone in the ward at any given time, and they would help where needed. I appreciate everyone who has helped with babysitting, I appreciate the phone calls, I appreciate the cute notes, and kind words of encouragement. Thank you so much.

I am headed off to hours worth of doctors appointments today. I hope that things will go smoothly. I really would like to cancel the surgery but I know that it's something that I need to do.

Surgery is scheduled for next Tuesday, July 14th and I will keep everyone updated. Again, thank you for all of your love and support. I couldn't do this without you!

2009-07-08T05:56:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite TV shows is on the TLC network and it's called, 18 kids and counting. If you haven't ever seen it, I would highly recommend it. Michelle Duggar and her husband Jim Bob are the parents of 18 children. Michelle gave birth to every one of the children. The kids range in age from 20 years-7 months. Michelle has had a baby every 18 months since 1988. Can you imagine? (and people think that Kevin and I have a lot of kids) Michelle and Jim Bob are such great parents, and they devote every ounce of energy to raising successful, happy, and healthy Michelle and Jim Bob built a 7000 sq. ft. home only with the help of their children. The family has never been in debt, and they have also never been on any type of government assistance. Anyway, they are just an amazing family. I tell Kevin constantly that I would love to meet Michelle Duggar. I know that she could teach me a thing or two about parenting.

You are probably wondering why I am telling you about the Duggar family and here is why. Last night I had the craziest dream. I dreamt that Michelle Duggar was assisting with my brain surgery. They were going to let her make several cuts in the back of my skull. I kept asking the Neurosurgeon if he was sure about this, and he assured me that Michelle was the woman for the job. My dream felt so real, and I woke up this morning with such a sore head.

I really would love to meet Michelle Duggar sometime but I hope I won't be meeting her in the operating room.

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

We had yet another wonderful 4th of July here in Tennessee. The whole weekend was filled with nothing but fun. Kevin had a 3 day weekend if you can believe it. It was also the first 4th of July that he has had off in 5 years so we just had to make it extra fun. We spent most of the weekend swimming with friends, eating good food. (speaking of food we even found a really good Greek restaurant that we tried), doing some projects around the house, and just spending time together. On Saturday, we headed over to the annual 4th of July party hosted by a family in our ward. This has become our Tennessee tradition, the kids had so much fun last year and haven't stopped talking about it since. I attempted to make my first double layer cake for this party, and it turned out rather well. I even put a raspberry filling in it. All of the food was very delicious!

I hope that everyone had a safe and wonderful 4th of July, I know that we did!

2009-07-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

Today was seriously one of the weirdest days I have had in a long time, and it didn't start out that way. For starters, I had a man come to my door who looked about like this:

He claimed that I owned his dog who looks like this:

I explained to him that I did not own his dog nor had I ever seen this dog in the neighborhood. After much debate about this stupid mutt, he then tells me that his sister-in-law who lives across the street told him that she sold me this dog. (Now don't you think that you should probably meet someone at least once before you are doing transactions with them?) seeing how I have never met this woman, and that she has only been my neighbor for less than a month, I found this situation to be rather weird.

As I am talking to this redneck who is standing at my back door, my heart is pounding. What if he tries to come in and look for the dog? What if he is really a robber and is just making up this dumb story to see if anyone is home at this house during the day? You never know! There is nothing I hate more than solicitors. The solicitor who sticks out in my mind the most is this kid who is selling this magnificent cleaner. You know the cleaner, the one that claims to clean ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. I tell him I am not interested and send him on his way, but before he leaves he wants to show me how safe his cleaner is and he immediately starts to drink it straight from the bottle. Yuck, anyway I don't like solicitors, and hardly ever open my door to strange people who I dont' know. Back to my story.

I finally convince Mr. redneck that we don't have his dog, and I see him get in his truck and head down our driveway. A few minutes later, I see him now driving back and fourth in front of our house. I decide that for safety measures, I better just call the police department.

While I am waiting for the police department to arrive, I tell my girls to stay in the house and keep everything locked while I head over to the neighbors house to give them a piece of my mind. I knock on the door, and quickly my mind starts racing again. What if this is a set up? What if these people kill me right here on this porch. Oh no, my girls are all home alone, and they won't know what happened to me.I was terrified okay, what can I say? Well, my lovely neighbor opens the door, and I ask him why he is telling his relatives that I own his dog. He pretends to not know anything I am talking about. The house is full of guys who look like this, and who are

covered in tattoos from head to toe.They even invited me in. In a calm voice, I told them that I would stay outside on the porch. I told the man who opened the door to not get me involved with his drama, and I then hear his wife tell me that I don't need to worry about anything. (Worry, why would I worry, the vampire teeth couldn't hurt that bad could they?) I thought that people were just missing a lot of teeth in Tennessee, never before had I seen pure gold teeth.

I did make it home safely and the cops arrived to ask me about my experience. The cop apparently knows this family that just moved in, and has already been dealing with them for different reasons.

What happened to normal people is what I want to know? We have the hardest time getting nice people to move into our neighborhood.

I think that I am just going to enjoy the rest of my day inside with my doors locked, and I can only hope that the rest of my day will be somewhat NORMAL.

2009-06-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

Wasn't I just mentioning the other day about how much I miss my fresh raspberry jam? Well, today must have been my lucky day because I found some beautiful fresh raspberries on sale at publix. Now let's just say that normally raspberries are almost $5 for one little carton of them, and the raspberries that I have seen here in Tennessee always look so old, therefore I rarely buy them. Today was an exception and I found them on sale for $20 a case. I quickly loaded my cart with 2 cases, and I am off to make some delicious homemade jam. The last day of the sale is today so get over to publix for some delicious berries. What a beautiful day indeed.

everyone needs a best friend

2009-06-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

When we moved to Tennessee I was so suprised at how few children we had in our ward. There was only 1 little girl Kelsie's age, and 1 other girl who was Alyssa's age. Lots and lots of boys but hardly any girls. The little girl who was Kelsie's age was named Mikayla, and she and Kelsie got along great. Soon Mikayla moved away which we were so sad about. It wasn't long before another little girl came along named Maya who Kelsie worships more than anyone else on this planet. Maya is her best friend and she never stops talking about her. When it's Kelsie's turn to pray at dinner time, her prayer usually goes something like this. Please bless that I can see Maya tomorrow, and that she will let me play with her toys. Please bless that Maya is having fun right now. Please bless that Maya will be at church tomorrow. Please bless that Maya is having a good day at preschool. Please bless that me and Maya can watch a movie. Please bless that I can go to Maya's house, and on and on and on about Maya. She plays with Maya sometimes as much as 3-4 times a week, and still that is not enough. When she is not playing with Maya, she is writing her letters and wants to mail them to her. They are so cute together though, and we love our little Maya. She and Kelsie are two peas in a pod that's for sure. Maya lives less than five minutes away from us which is also very convenient.

Kentucky, the lake, and fun galore

2009-06-28T19:26:00.001-07:00

We have had a summer of HOT weather, humidity, swimming, playing, sleeping in, free summer movies, barbecues, catching fireflies, no chiggers (knock on wood), and just having an all-around great summer. It's going by way too fast. It's sad to think that Alyssa will be back in school in just four short weeks.

We went to Kentucky last weekend to visit a place called Kentucky Down Under. It was a really neat place. (It could have been a lot neater if it wasn't 90 degrees outside with about 80% humidity, but it was great and the kids had so much fun.) They have several different kinds of kangaroo's that they allow you to pet, and other hands-on exhibits. There is also a cave there that you can go into. Our girls thought that going into the cave was so spectacular. The weather in the cave was spectacular also.

We also went to one of Kevin's work parties which was held on the lake, the weather was just perfect so it made for a very pleasant day. It was the first time that our girls had been boating, and let's just say they had the time of their lives. Alyssa kept jumping off of the dock and would swim back and forth non-stop. She did this literally for hours. By the time we got in the car which was seven hours later, both she and Kelsie just crashed.

The majority of our summer has been spent swimming, you have to beat the heat somehow around these parts. Alyssa has really taken off with her swimming skills. She can now swim the lap of the pool without a life jacket, and can also jump off of the diving board without assistance. Kelsie, and the babies have really enjoyed the water as well.

Tennessee has grown on me and I am falling more and more in love with it every day. It kind of scares me at times because I find myself not wanting to leave this beautiful state. ( I bet you didn't ever expect me to say that did you?) Kevin literally had to drag me here, and I think that if we ever go back to Utah, it's very possible that he will be dragging me back there as well.

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

(drawing of Kevin courtesy of Alyssa)

It looks just like him if you ask me

I know that this post is a little late but none the less, I wanted to tell Kevin Happy Father's Day. He is such an incredible Dad to our estrogen filled house, and loves his girls more than words can say. Our girls also love their Dad more than words can say.

Alyssa knows all about her Dad, and wrote it in the cutest Father's Day card ever. She said that her Dad is 31 years old. He is 6'2 inches tall. His favorite color is green. Her Dad is so strong that he can lift 6 pounds. Her Dad is busy at work and puts people to sleep so they can have surgery. Her Dad's favorite t.v show is the Blob. His favorite food is spaghetti and meatballs. His favorite sport is basketball. Her favorite thing to do with her dad is play basketball, and she thinks that her Dad is the best Dad in the world because he is very very fun to play with. On the back of the card she also had to list the top 5 things that you must do to be a great Dad and here is what she said in order:

5-buy toys for your children

4-Tell jokes to your children

3-Not yell at your children

2-Pay attention to your children

1-Love your children

All of those things I can assure you that Kevin truly does. He is such a fun-loving Dad. He was so meant to be the father of all girls. He can name you every Disney princess, and can carve a princess pumpkin like you have never seen. He is great at telling bedtime stories, and even does character voices. He makes fun character pancakes for breakfast that he designs himself. He teaches the girls about all kinds of things ranging in facts about life to facts about Voltron. He is the master at changing diapers, and could do it with his eyes closed. He can put a baby to sleep within seconds flat. These are only a few of the thousands of great attributes that Kevin has but I won't embarrass him by telling you more.

Happy Father's Day Kevin, we love you lots!

3 words that should never be used in the same sentence

2009-06-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

Those 3 words are aggressive, surgery, and non-curable. Luckily enough for me, I heard all of those today while I spent 1 1/2 hours talking with my neurosurgeon. Surgery has been scheduled, and in less than four weeks I will be going through yet another endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery for the removal of a pituitary tumor. I think that I should be able to get some kind of a discount seeing how this surgery is most likely going to be something that will be happening often.

I don't even know where to begin in venting my anger and frustrations. Part of me wants to just pretend like this isn't really going to happen and continue being in denial, then part of me is the tough Trisha side that just tells me to be strong and that I will be able to kick this tumor's butt. Oh how I don't know what side to be on. Right now I just want to cry. Knowing what is coming my way is almost harder than not knowing. For instance with the last surgery, I experienced a lot of complications. I had a spinal fluid leak, and had to have a skin graft taken from my right thigh to patch the leak. I threw up several litters of blood following the surgery, and just had some other things happen that you probably don't want to hear about. Am I scared to go through this again? The answer is YES.

This time around I even get to experience the joys of having 3 screws in my skull while my surgery takes place. These are called skin markers and will be used so that the doctor's can do an MRI while I am actually having my surgery, and will help them navigate through the proper tumor areas. Does this sound painful to anyone else because it sure does to me. Oh, and I have to be awake while they put these screws in place. They do numb up the skull the day before surgery. Oh my gosh, I can't possibly do this. Not to mention that they are going to clip off some of my hair in these three spots. I am not going to think about this part. Moving on.

This tumor is aggressive and is not responding to medication at this time. We are going to try to remove the largest portion of the tumor, and then the neurosurgeonwill have me follow-up with radiation. What? Are you kidding me? Radiation. I can't possibly think of radiation. Luckily, it will just be done with a laser beam and not with radioactive dye. It seems like there are more risks with the radioactive dye. Let's just skip talking about radiation, I can't think about that either.

I found this really good website that talks about pituitary surgery in language that I can even understand. Here are some pictures if you feel so as inclined to look at them. People are kind of curious as to how they do this surgery, so here it is.

The surgeon uses an image-guidance system to help navigate through the nose. Skull landmarks and infrared cameras correlate the “real patient” to the 3D computer model generated from the patient’s CT or MRI scans. It functions as a global positioning system to help locate the lesion. Instrument positions are detected by the cameras and displayed on the computer model. Next, the endoscope is inserted through one nostril. A bony opening is made in the nasal septum (dotted line) and sphenoid sinus (green) to access the sella. Last but not least, the surgeon passes instruments through the other nostril to remove the tumor.

That my friends, is pituitary surgery at its finest.

Just tell me that I can do this. I need encouragement more than anything and maybe a few babysitters so that I can get to a few more appointments before my surgery.

My Mom will be flying out for a few weeks when I have the surgery, and it will be so good to have her help with the girls.

The cost of feeding TWINS!

2009-06-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

These little chunks think that they are always starving. Can you tell by the pictures how much they are starving? Between the two of them per day they drink 80 ounces of formula, eat 4 bottles of baby food, and eat 2 bowls of mixed baby cereal. So the cost of feeding them per day is around $9.14. Doesn't seem like a whole lot until you times that by 28 days. Grand total is $255.92 per month. Wow!

strawberry picking

2009-06-11T05:48:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago the girls and I went strawberry picking in good ol' Cottontown. Cottontown is about 40 minutes away or so but the drive was well worth it. It was a new experience picking our own berries. The girls thought it was very exciting, and I think Alyssa ate more berries than she put into her basket. We came home and made some strawberry jam, and also made a pie. Very delicious strawberries. I wish they had raspberries here but they don't. They ship them in from other states, and they are so usually so expensive to buy. Oh well, I guess the strawberries and blackberries will have to do for now.

2009-06-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

My favorite reading material of all times is cookbooks. I can read a cookbook from cover to cover over and over again. I love just going through all of the different recipes and deciding what I would like to cook. When I heard that a new cookbook was coming out called the worldwide ward cookbook, I knew that this was the book for me. Ward cookbooks are my favorite. What I love the most about them is that the recipes are tried and true, and they mostly have foods that people would actually eat.

If you enjoy cooking and want a really good cookbook with some delicious and simple recipes, this cookbook is for you. Tonight we made chicken fajitas, homemade salsa which was the best salsa I have ever tasted in my life, and then for desert we made layered mint brownies. Because I am so nice, I am going to give you the recipes for the brownies, and the salsa. The fajita recipe is not from this cookbook. This cookbook is a definite must have. Enjoy some good food. I know that we will. Kelsie and Alyssa helped me make dinner, and they also helped make desert. Kelsie's reply after dinner was this, "Mom, can we make something from this book tomorrow?" We definitely will.

The world's best salsa

1 4-oz can chopped green chile's

2 14-oz cans Mexican-style stewed tomatoes

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. garlic salt

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

2 T. vinegar

fresh tomatoes, chopped, to taste

scallions, sour cream, and grated cheese for garnish

Place all ingredients except fresh tomatoes and garnishes in a blended. Set on chop setting and blend until barely chopped. Pour in bowl. Add fresh chopped tomatoes. Sprinkle with some chopped green onions, a dollop of sour cream, and a little grated cheese

*I made this without the garnish on top and it was perfect. I don't know that I would add the sour cream and cheese on the top unless you liked it that way.

Layered mint chocolate brownies

Brownie:

1 c. butter, melted

2/3 c. cocoa powder

2 c. sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 c. flour

mint frosting:

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 lb. powdered sugar

1-3 T. milk

1/2 t. peppermint extract

green food coloring

chocolate topping:

1 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 c. butter

Brownie:

Mix butter, cocoa, and sugar; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Stir in flour. Spread into a greased 9x13-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Let cool completely.

Mint Frosting:

Mix butter and powdered sugar. Add only enough milk to make a smooth consistency. Add mint extract and enough food coloring for a light green color. Frosting will be thick. Spread over brownie layer. Refrigerate until firm.

Chocolate topping:

Melt chocolate chips and butter in microwave for 2-3 minutes. Stir well to combine. Pour over frosted brownies, covering frosting completely. Refrigerate until topping is set and hardened. Let brownies sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before cutting. Cut into 24 small squares with sharp knife.

Molluscum Contagi-what?

2009-06-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

About the time that we arrived to Tennessee last summer, we noticed that Alyssa and Kelsie had these little wart looking things all over their bodies. As time wore on, the warts just continued spreading. It just so happened that I had been talking to one of my friends from Utah and both of her daughters had also been suffering with these pesky bumps. Sure enough another friend from Utah said that her kids had also been suffering with them. The only conclusion that we could draw from this was that because our kids had all been swimming in the same plastic pool outside of our apartment complex that maybe whoever was infected with it first had passed it along to everyone else.

This started a year ago, and Kelsie and Alyssa are still suffering terribly. Between the two of them, I bet they have about 100 or more lesions all over their bodies. We have been to several doctor's trying to cure this. We did figure out that these warts do have a name, and they are referred to as molluscum contagiosum. In short, molluscum is a viral infection of the skin that causes these little warts to appear all over the skin. One doctor told me that in some cases children have had these for up to five years. There really isn't a whole lot to do for these either. We have tried several courses of treatment including freezing, over the counter creams, wart remover which hurt the girls terribly, and our latest remedy duct tape. I made another appointment today to see a pediatric dermatologist and am hopeful that he will know something to finally get rid of these. Kelsie's poor little face is covered in these, they are even in her hair. Alyssa has these mostly on the backs of her legs, and will scratch them until they bleed. They are really painful from what Alyssa tells me. I feel so bad for them.

Has anyone ever had molluscum? What did you do to finally get rid of it? I really want these to go away. A year is long enough to deal with this.

confessions of a real life stay-at-home Mom

2009-06-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

I will be the first to admit that I am far from perfect in every way, and this story is just one of many that proves it.

First, I have to start by giving you a little background to the story you are about to read. So I really enjoy gambling. I am not obsessed with gambling by any stretch of imagination. What I mean here is that I am not out gambling my house, title to our cars, etc.

Living in Utah where gambling was illegal, the closest place you could gamble was in Wendover. Well, let's just say I have been out to Wendover a few times in my life. (It's my Mom's fault that I love to gamble. She was the one who made me scratch her lottery tickets when we would drive through Idaho, and she is also the one who went with me to Wendover.) Shame on you Mom, but I love you anyway!

When we moved out here to Tennessee, I was shocked to learn that Tennessee has their own LOTTERY, and you can buy lottery tickets everywhere including gas stations, grocery stores, you name the place and you can get tickets. Kevin I think was a little hesitant in learning about the lottery, and I think to be honest he was concerned for our well-being. I can't say that I blame him one bit, and by the way he is not a gambler. In fact he has never scratched a lottery ticket in his life. I know great example isn't he? Well, having the lottery within walking distance isn't a big deal to me. In fact it has almost cured my gambling addiction, and in the 1 year that we have now lived in Tennessee, I have purchased maybe $7 worth of tickets. Amazing isn't it?

Now on with my story. So the other day the girls and I were at our local supermarket, and Kelsie simply asked me for $1. I asked her what she needed it for, and with the cutest grin and her bright green eyes just staring at me said that she needed it for the ticket machine, and pointed towards the door. I turned around and saw that she was in deed referring to the lottery ticket machine. Whoops some example I am? My kids do also know how to scratch tickets, and they share my love for the lottery as well. Oh, and one more thing. I have never won anything so far, but my Mom came out and bought a few $1 tickets and won $34 dollars. Can you believe that?

Not just an ordinary Sunday

2009-05-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

I dread Sunday's as I have mentioned many times before and today was no exception. Another Sunday of thinking about taking four kids to church alone yet again. Today I just wasn't in the mood for church to be honest and so the simplest solution to this was going to be staying home. The morning was smooth sailing, and I was just enjoying a nice peaceful morning of doing absolutely whatever I felt like. That was however short lived when my little four year old starting asking about when she could take a bath because she wanted to be clean for church. I simply told her that we would not be going to church today, and you would have thought that I told her that Santa Claus wasn't coming by the look of her face. I replayed the past few Sunday's in my mind and still was convinced that there was no way that we were going to relive one of those today.

Kelsie got her bath and after she got out of the bath, I soon found her getting a dress down from her closet and preceding to get ready for church anyway regardless of what I was telling her. During this time my oldest daughter was in my room watching a slide show that she had found about Jesus. Kelsie soon joined Alyssa and the two of them were discussing the video.

Random thoughts were again running through my mind, and I couldn't help but marvel at these two little girls who were trying so hard to be obedient in spite of their Mother's stubbornness. I had a complete change of heart about church, and thought that if I didn't make it to church today, I would never in a million years live this experience down.

We quickly got ready for church and surprisingly everyone was in a good mood even me. Kelsie assured me that she would even go to primary today. She hasn't been now for several weeks and so I was excited to hear her say this.

As I walked into church, the spirit was so strong. I knew that I really needed to be there today. My babies weren't sure that they needed to be there as they cried throughout most of sacrament meeting but that's okay. I was so touched with the talks that were given. I was also touched as I watched the wife of a newly baptized member cry as her husband was blessing the sacrament for the very first time. I wondered how many times I had taken the gospel fore granted but yet for some people, they had been searching their entire lives for this gospel.

After sacrament meeting, Kelsie began to cry and I knew that again she wasn't going to go to primary. Quickly our bishop's wife came over and asked if Kelsie could help her in primary. Kelsie agreed and actually went with her to primary ALONE! I was so proud of her. More importantly, she stayed in primary without crying. MEREDITH YOU ARE AMAZING! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord, and I know that he really is watching over us. Even when we think that we can't go another day, he is there beside us giving us that extra push.

I hope to be a better example to my girls, I really am going to work on that!

Kevin happenings

2009-05-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

You know, this blog seems to always be about me and the girls so I thought that it's about time that I mentioned something about Kevin. More like Kevin, who's Kevin? We don't really see much of Kevin but when he is around we love it! Last we heard he was off fighting Darth Vader somewhere in the galactic empire, and he says that he's a doctor. (go figure)

Would you believe that intern year is almost over? As of the first week of July you are going to be seeing Dr. Kevin the resident. No more dealing with the crap work as Kevin so kindly refers to being a lovely intern. Just yesterday he was telling me about a patient who came in with a leg wound that was filled with maggots. Sounds like crap work to me. YUCK!

What a crazy year that it has been, and a very BUSY one as well. The first month on the job he worked a total of 341 hours. Kevin is paid salary, and when we did the math we were making a whooping $11.00 an hour. Pretty good for a family of six! NOT

Kevin had months where he was working in the ICU. He would be call every third night which meant that he would go in to work somewhere between 4:00-4:30 a.m. and then work until somewhere between 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. the next day. Most of these nights were worked without a minute of sleep. He would come home from working these shifts, sleep for a few hours, wake up, grab something to eat, take a shower, and then head back to bed. He would go to work for a regular shift the next day, and then would be on call again the next day.He has always been such a hard worker, and I appreciate his dedication to keep our family going. It's been important for him to make sure that I am able to stay home with the kids and don't have to work. He does a great job in making sure that things stay like that.

We love you KEVIN!

What can $100.00 get you?

2009-05-17T20:22:00.000-07:00

It can't get you much these days it seems, but I was pleased with the deals that I found for the price. I went to an indoor yard sale on Saturday. The family having the sale had two children who were also a set of twin 3 year old girls. Oh, how I love rich people. Especially when I am the one who gets to benefit. They were selling pretty much everything you could possibly imagine. Of course the best deals of the day were the twin items that they had for sale. This is what I got for my buck:
2 exersaucer's in immaculate condition
Fisher Price pull train with all of the animals
2 Playskool pull puppies
2 Fisher Price kick water mats for the car
2 Fisher Price pull phones
12 pairs of shoes including 2 pairs of Robeez and 2 pairs of Nike's
4 burp cloths
2 pink Nike sweat outfits
2 jackets
12 dresses including Polo, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hillfiger, and OshKosh. (most of them had never been worn and still have tags)
6 skirts
10 pairs of pajamas
6 rompers
4 pairs of pants
4 shirts

Seems like a great deal if you ask me. If you ask Kevin, he will tell you that the best deal would have been not getting it in the first place. I tend to disagree. My girls are set for at least the next 18 months. It pays to be frugal

6 months and counting

2009-05-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

We did it, we officially have survived the first six months in raising TWINS! What a journey it has been and yet it is a journey that we wouldn't have traded for anything except maybe for SLEEP!

You couldn't ask for better babies than Leah and Audrey. These two little girls are nothing but sweet. We have learned a lot in raising twins. We are still far from experts and are still learning things as we go along but it is definitely getting easier. Those first few months were a little rocky. I think now that we finally have their schedules figured out we are good to go.

I mentioned before that Leah is now the bigger one. At their six month check-up Leah weighed 16 1/2 pounds and Audrey isn't too far behind her, weighing in at 16 1/4 pounds. They are almost exactly identical in their length (tall like our other girls)
Here are a few random facts about the girls:

Leah

has recently discovered baby food and can't get enough of it. Eating has become her favorite pastime

Is not getting any teeth as of yet

can almost sit up

is pretty good at rolling over

mastered sleeping through the night at 2 months old. Sleeping from 7:00 p.m.-7:00 a.m.

is such a happy baby, she rarely cries and is so good to just play by herself

can smile and laugh

she has the cutest dimples and the cutest button nose

recently has discovered that she likes eating her toes

provides lots of entertainment to her family, and we love her TONS!

Audrey

What? big sister can almost roll over? Not me, I have no interest in that. I am busy with other things

also has mastered sleeping through the night at 2 months old, same schedule as her sister

does not enjoy baby food, and prefers bottles

loves to be held, and is highly jealous if you hold her sister instead of her

sucks her thumb

is getting her two bottom teeth

can smile and laugh

also provides a lot of enjoyment to her family.

We are so lucky to have these little girls in our family, we have been blessed in so many ways. It always makes me so happy to walk into the twins room in the morning when they first wake-up. They never cry and just wait patiently for me to get them out of bed. I love that! I love being their Mom!