Routine Revamp

As I have been reading different blogs lately, more and more people have been talking about making their home a cleanlier, happier, more peaceful place. They have also talked about getting into routines to keep the house clean. It has gotten me thinking a lot about my house and my life in general.

Add to this, last week as I was preparing for my Primary lesson, I came across this quote by Dallin H. Oaks:

"What if the day of His coming were tomorrow? If we knew that we would meet the Lord tomorrow-through our premature death or through His unexpected coming-what would we do today? What confessions would we make? What practices would we discontinue? What accounts would we settle? What forgivenesses would we extend? What testimonies would we bear?

If we would do those things then, why not now? Why not seek peace while peace can be obtained? If our lamps of preparation are drawn down, let us start immediately to replenish them."

I have thought about this quote all week. Millions of things come to my mind in checklist format of things that I would do. I feel overwhelmed, discouraged, and plain old not good enough. I feel like this race that we are all running seems SO long.

So, in pondering all this, I have decided that I need to have a routine revamp. I need to figure out what is my priorities and find some balance in my life. So often with working, especially from home, I feel like I neglect my kids. I feel like we just go through the motions to get through the day without really progressing towards any goals. I feel like I am just keeping my head above water.

I have written down daily routines a thousand times. My biggest problem is the self-discipline to keep them. Too often, I am too tired to stick to schedule or I just don't feel like it. My kids need more of my time, my house is in shambles, and every day feels SO chaotic.

So, I have really opened up during my post today so that I can renew my commitment to get on a schedule and be more balanced. So that I can fill my lamp of preparation. So that I don't have any regrets when everything is said and done. Hopefully, everyone can help keep me on track!

It Has Finally Begun

My two kids have been great friends. Paige has always been good to play with Lexi and they have great fun together. I have seen other siblings fight and I was so thankful that my kids didn't.......yet.

Well, my pleasant enjoyment of amicable children has ended. They now yell, cry, hit, and pull hair. In fact, as I write this, they are in the midst of another scuffle.

It has only just begun but I am already SO TIRED of tattle telling, pushing, hitting, crying, and everything else that comes along with bickering children. Hence, I am letting them work it out for the moment.

How do YOU deal with bickering children? Any suggestions?

(I have ruled out institutionalizing myself for insanity! :))

Paige's First Real Haircut

Every day when I brush Paige's hair, she SCREAMS. I got so tired of the battle that we decided to get her hair cut. We took her to Walmart's hair salon for the $10 special. She was really nervous to get her hair cut but she loves it shorter!!

Before

After

All the hair she got cut off

It is so much more manageable but I can still pull it back into a ponytail. We have a happier home come hair time!

Biscuits 'N Gravy Cook-off

Several weeks ago (I am really behind with blogging), Joseph's Uncle Aaron was involved in a cook-off. He eats a little cafe near his office pretty regularly and commented to the owner one day that her biscuits and gravy were really good but he thought he could make a better biscuits in gravy.

So they decided to have a cook-off. They turned it into a charity fund raiser. Whoever lost would pay $1 for every vote cast. They decided to donate the money to my sister-in-law, Lisa, who is running a charity marathon to raise money for a leukemia and lymphoma foundation. They advertised it and everyone who came in got free biscuits and gravy, one of each variety.

You didn't know whose was whose. They were each on a different color plate and you picked the color that you liked best. They also tallied up the votes every half hour and whoever lost every half hour got in the dunk tank. Everyone who voted for the winning plate got to through three balls at the loser.

Although both gravies were DELICIOUS, we ended up not voting for Uncle Aaron's. We didn't know that at the time of our vote. So we each got to through three balls at Uncle Aaron to try and get him in the dunk tank.

I royally sucked on my throws but Paige got to have a turn. With her first ball she hit the target but it wasn't hard enough to put him into the dunk tank. Since she had rightfully hit the target, Lisa helped her out on her third throw by hitting the target with her hand and sending Uncle Aaron into the dunk tank!

My nephews each got to take a turn as well.

Into the dunk tank went Uncle Aaron!

It was a great time and they were able to raise money for Lisa's marathon! Uncle Aaron ended up losing the cook-off but they have decided to make it an annual event. We can't wait to join in the fun next year!

Health Update

I saw the urologist on the 14th. He confirmed my need for surgery. He is actually going to transfer me to a urologist who is joining their practice in September. She specializes in urinary reflux.

Good news is that he said that there is about a 95% success rate with this surgery. I will be in the hospital for a few days and then home with a catheter. I won't be able to lift things for awhile (not even Lexi). However, he really feels that I haven't done much kidney damage and that this can be easily corrected with the surgery.

He said that I have had it since birth and for some reason, I never struggled with urinary tract infections as a kid and so they weren't able to catch it. Even if they had caught it, they are pretty conservative with children and wait to do surgery because a lot of times as kids grow, it corrects itself. Since I am done growing and it obviously hasn't corrected itself, they will surgically correct it.

He said it isn't an emergency to get it fixed so we are hoping to have the surgery done the beginning of November. I can't even see the new urologist until sometime in September. I hate the waiting game......I will feel much better after I see her and things are set in stone.

I do feel a lot better than I did after the VCUG. The radiologist really freaked me out and the urologist was able to calm a lot of my fears.

I know that God is watching over me and that everything is going as He wants it. I just need to keep learning to trust in Him and His plan for me.

Vesicoureteral Reflux

I know, I know....first how in the world do you pronounce that and second, what in the world is it? Let me give you the technical definition from a kidney website that I found:

"Urine normally flows in one direction—down from the kidneys, through tubes called ureters, to the bladder. Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is the abnormal flow of urine from the bladder back into the ureters."

That definition does fail to mention that it not only backs up to your ureters but also back into your kidney.

So at this point, although I am sure you are thankful for this wonderful tidbit of health information that I have shared today, you are probably wondering why in the world I care enough to blog about it. Well, I get the pleasure of dealing with it after being diagnosed with it on Monday.

I will start at the very beginning. Shortly after getting married, I had a bladder infection. Not that big of a deal except that I don't get symptoms of a bladder infection until it has gone to my kidneys. To put a kidney infection into perspective, I would rather birth a baby with no pain medicine than have a kidney infection. With a kidney infection, it gets worse by the SECOND (not even exaggerating!) and it hurts no matter what I do, even breathing. You can never get to the doctor fast enough when it gets worse by the second.

Anyway, I digress. I also got several bladder infections and kidney infections when I was pregnant with Paige. They even put me on a medicine that I had to take every night to prevent infection. Ever since then, I have gotten these infections with increasing frequency.

A few months ago, I had two kidney infections in one month, followed by another one the next month. Thankfully, I have seen my doctor long enough that when I call her and tell her that I am in pain, she handles it immediately. Well, after enough of these, her and I sat down to have a chat about my issues. She had me go for a CT scan of my kidneys to see if I was having kidney stones. After the CT scan, she personally called (never a good sign when they don't pass it off to the nurse to make the call) to tell me that she was sending me to a urologist because although I didn't have evidence of kidney stones, I did have a cyst on my right kidney and inflammation on my left. She said that it wasn't a major deal but that she did want a urologist on board with my care.

I was a little nervous seeing the urologist but figured he would sign off on the medicine that my regular doctor had me on. I figured it would be in and out. I didn't even have Joseph go with me because everything was going to be fine. FAMOUS LAST WORDS!! After discussing all of my symptoms with the doctor, he said that he wanted me to be evaluated for reflux. I asked how we did that. He told me that I would have to have a catheter and they would put contrast into my bladder to see if it was backing up.

The tears started to well up in my eyes. Ridiculous to those who haven't had a scarring catheter experience. Perfectly normal for someone who has had a nurse rip out your catheter without deflating the balloon and you haven't been able to pee for three days.

He said that after that procedure (called a voiding cystourethrogram - more commonly referred to as VCUG) he would put a camera up in there during our next office visit. I told him that he was out of his mind if he thought that a camera was going in me without me either having an epidural or being completely knocked out. I told him it was going to be a cold day in you know where before he would even get me to have the VCUG. He told me that if reflux causes permanent kidney damage and so I really needed to have this done. I ALMOST opted for risking the permanent kidney damage.

We came to a compromise that if I was good about getting the catheter procedure done, that he would knock me out for the camera part. So six weeks later (I did reschedule it once but not because of my fear but rather because they forgot to clear it with Tricare. If any of you have Tricare, you know why this is a big deal and a show stopper) was this last Monday and I went in for my VCUG. I made Joseph go with me and told him that he better hold my hand, rub my head, whisper in my ear over and over that it was okay, and generally be emotionally supportive. Okay, emotionally drag me through this. If any of you know Joseph well, you know that emotional is not his preferred place to be. In fact, I usually have to drag him tooth and nail to get him to get emotional or even deal with my emotions. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband more than anything. I just wish he wasn't always so emotionally tough.

Once again, I digress. I also called for some Valium at the last minute to help me get through this VCUG. Thankfully, the doctor gave it to me which made the procedure much nicer. Anyway, to shorten this already long saga of a post, the upshot is that I have major reflux. The radiologist said that it was bad and that I needed surgery........soon. I have reflux on both sides. I have a lot of questions right now but I don't see the urologist until the 14th. I have tried to be pretty light about the whole situation in this post however it is pretty serious and I don't know how much kidney damage I have already sustained.

I do know that this is Heavenly Father's will and that he is very aware of the situation and more importantly, is in control of the situation. I know that even though things are really scary for me right now, that if I have faith and lean on Him, He will carry me through this.

Joseph and I have faced a lot of scary medical things in the almost five years that we have been married (in fact I might tie him in surgeries with my current health issue). He has had a major trauma accident which included six surgeries, five days in a coma, and two months in a hospital. I have had two premature babies that included a combined six months of bed rest with two of those months in the hospital. I have had two surgeries (bringing my overall lifetime total to four). We figured it out one time that Joseph and I have had combined inpatient time of over six months in our five years of marriage. Anyway, my point is that through all of this, Heavenly Father has carried us every step. He has never forsaken us and I know that He will take care of us again.

However, I could use all the prayers that I can get at this point. I will keep you posted on how everything plays out!

Slippin' and a Slidin'

A few months ago we hosted the monthly family dinner for Joseph's family. We just barbequed on a Saturday afternoon. Our next door neighbors were out with the slip and slide and invited the kids to come over and enjoy the fun! Paige, as usual, was very timid and cautious. James, our nephew, was having a blast and held nothing back! It was so much fun to watch the kids enjoy themselves and cool down from the hot weather!

Our neighbor's dog, Barracks, is HUGE! He loves to play in the water and will jump to catch water. I cut the top of Joseph and Barracks off of this picture but you can still see how big Barracks is and how high he jumps!

Paige preferred to drink out of the elephant's trunk!