Spring Flowers

I took this picture when we were in Seattle.  Brian and I went accross to West Seattle and walked around. The downtownish area was so quaint and beautiful.  All the trees and flowers were blooming. It was simply amazing!

Off Roading

Towards the end of last summer Brian and I bought Lauren this purple power wheel jeep.  My brother drives a jeep and since Aaron is one of Lauren's favorite people she thought she needed one too.  It didn't help that  a little girl on the street over from us had one and Lauren would see it every day as we drove by!!  She would say I want a purple jeep...every time
Earlier this evening Brian was outside with her and he comes to the door and says look what our dare devil daughter is doing. 




She made that path down into the ditch all by herself.  I have no idea where she learns these things!!

Easter

A couple of weeks ago we took the kids to see the movie Hop.  If you have seen that you will know that EB, the Easter Bunny poops out jelly beans.  :)  He even left some droppings next to Lauren's basket, on the floor in her room and even on the counter in the bathroom.  When Lauren saw them she said EW and then promptly picked them up and started eating them. 

Colton's first Easter

He is such a doll.  I just love his grin.  He was so curious about everything in his basket...and sissy's too.

My mom got him this little suit and I have to say that he looks just like a little man!!

Lauren picked out her Easter dress.  My mom and Brian took her shopping when I was recovering from my surgery.  She said that when she put it on she felt like a princess.  She twirled and twirled in it when she brought it home and showed me. 

The weather held up nicely.  Rain was in the forecast but it held off and the sun was shining!!  We hid eggs in the back yard.  TONS OF EGGS.

Aunt Mollie even helped Colton find some eggs. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!

And if Our God Is For Us

Who Can Be Against Us!!

This past weekend Brian and I had the privelage of traveling to Seattle to see Chris Tomlin in concert.  If you follow me on twitter you may remember a while back me annoucning that I had won a trip on the radio!!  That trip was for us to fly anywhere that Chris' "And if Our God is for Us" Spring tour was.  We both wanted to go somewhere that we had never been before and finally decided on Seattle.  Let me tell you that it was well worth it!  Not only was Seattle a wonderful city to visit but Chris put on an awesome show!!  We even got meet and great passes and were able to take a picture with Chris. 

He was very accomodating and down to earth!

This is the opening band called Rend Collective.  They are from Ireland and were great!  I really enjoyed listening to them play.  Their style is a cross between modern to contemporay Christian and Irish hymns.  LOVED IT!!

Chris Tomlin opening his set!

Christy Nockels was also on stage with Chris.  She has such a beautiful voice.  When she sang "Amazing Grace" I was BLOWN AWAY!! 

I was so thankful for this experience. Not only to be able to travel somewhere that I had never been but to go to an amazing concert and hear a message by Louie Giglio. 

Rock'n

Yesterday right about lunch time I get a call from one of Lauren’s teachers. Our conversation goes like this


Teacher: “you are going to have to come and pick up Lauren”

Me: “why what happened?” {I thought she had gotten in trouble}

Teacher: “well she stuck a rock up her nose and we can’t get it out. You are probably going to have to take her to the doctor.”

Me: “SHE DID WHAT?”

Teacher:”well she kept sticking her finger up her nose during nap time and after me telling her to quit 3 or 4 times Lauren says ‘but there’s a rock up there!’”

Immediately panic sunk in. Here I am at work about to leave for a lunch meeting that I absolutely cannot miss because I had already rescheduled it once and my child is sitting at daycare with a rock up her nose. I immediately call the doctor’s office and get the next appointment after lunch and then I text my brother who is less than two minutes away from the daycare. He runs up there and after trying every trick in the book finally puts his hand over her mouth, plugs up the other side of her nose and says blow and out came the rock!!!

I have a feeling that all of the attention and talk about my nose the last couple of weeks since my surgery has made Lauren curious.  She did after all ask me everytime I took my medicine if I was going to shove it up my nose.  :)  I guess she thought since my nose hurt that is where the medicine was supposed to go!!  HAHA!!

 

Momentum

I forgot to mention in my last post about my surgery that now I can breathe out of my nose completely unrestricted! That was the whole purpose of the title Breathe! I blame it on the fact that I was still taking medication! :) I am doing so much better with the headaches too. They are less frequent and less intense so there is no need for me to take the strong medication they prescribed but rather Advil or Tylenol seems to do the trick. Good thing to since I am back at work. I don’t want my head to be all fuzzy. I still sound a bit congested but that is due to the work that he did inside my sinuses and should clear up within the next few weeks.


I need to get my focus back on track for my weight loss goals. I lost momentum during the time I was recovering from my sinus surgery. I was still trying my best to stay within my calorie limit but I was not making the best food choices. It is hard when nothing sounds good but you have to eat something so that you can take pain medicine…every 4 hours. I did end up losing about 4 pounds overall though making my total weight loss 35 pounds.

Since I have been back to work my energy has plummeted. I was doing great before the surgery with working out. I felt wonderful and was doing something at least every day. I am sad to admit that I have not worked out for 14 days. I have no motivation or energy. I know that I need to build up my energy after having surgery and doing no activity but I am frustrated. I immediately want to go to bed as soon as the kids are down and I fall asleep practically as soon as my head hits the pillow. 8:30 both nights this week! I know that I will get back in the swing of things and I am really beating myself up for no reason, I just need to do it! Tonight I am going to force myself to no matter how tired I am. Actually my goal is to take the kids for a walk after dinner.

I also need to update on the vegetarian challenge that I was doing the month of March. I have to say again that I did not miss meat! And that I will be incorporating more vegetarian dishes into our meal plans. Lauren and Brian on the other hand did not like all of the dishes that I fixed. Some of them may have been too adventurous for Lauren. :) I did not make it the whole month not eating meat though. The last two days of the month as I was recovering from surgery my mother fed me chicken! I was too out of it and in too much pain to complain.

Thanks for all of your kind words, thoughts and prayers in the comments and on Twitter. Each and every one of you are rock stars in my book!!

Lauren - isms

Wipeout edition.  Have you seen the show Wipeout on ABC?  Lauren loves it.  She really likes it when the people fall and do funny things.  I think that comes from her father who laughs histerically right along with her.  :)

"I wanna go on the big balls"

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

"Whoa she just got chili whomped"

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

"I wanna do that Wipeout"

Breathe

I am still here!  I really haven't felt up to doing much since my surgery.  As a matter of fact I was camped out in the recliner until Tuesday barely getting up to go to the bath room and irrigate my nose and even then wasn't really able to get up and about until yesterday.  My mom was here taking care of me and had little nurse Lauren by her side.  :)

A week ago Wednesday my doctor performed a whole sleu of things that I can't remember or pronounce on my sinuses and my nose.  I was in pain, lots and lots of pain.  The way that I have found to describe it is to take your worst hangover, add in the worst cold or sinus infection you have ever had and then multiply that by 75.  It has not been a glamorous week for me.

The surgery went well and my doctor is confident that this should help solve my sinus issues and the facial swelling that I have had in the past. 

I came home Wednesday afternoon since the procedure was outpatient.  They gave me some pretty potent pain killers that made me have hot flashes and naseua.  I was only taking a quarter of the perscribed amount and was still feeling sick.  My doctor called me a light weight and prescribed me something else! Unfortunately the wonderful insurance company wouldn't let us fill the perscription until Sunday.  So I tried to sleep as much as possible to alleviate the pain. 

Lauren was very concerned and she helped take care of me whenever she was home.  She would hand me my pills, hold my hand whenever I got up to go to the bathroom, and would barely hug me because she was afraid of hurting me.  I think she has a career in healthcare in her future.  :)