Emily's Surgery

Back in the post for Emily's birthday, I mentioned that Emily had been referred to a urological surgeon about her bladder infections and reflux. When we met with the urologist, he told us that the injection would not work in Emily's case because the reflux was too severe. After several reschedules, Emily finally had her surgery on February 2nd. Maybe this should have gone in my last post on January randomness, but we bought Emily a new dress the weekend before her surgery. That Sunday, we went to my mom's house so that Sherwin could assist Mike in giving Emily a pre-operation priesthood blessing. Emily begged us to bring her dress so she could show it off to Grandma and Grandpa. My mom has a lot of very cute pictures of Emily dancing in her dress. The only picture I have is of Emily dancing with her Grandpa Crooks, but it's dang cute! She adores her grandpa!

We tried to prepare Emily for what was coming, but she didn't really get it. I explained to her that the doctor was going to make a small cut in her tummy and fix her insides, and that it would hurt for a while, but she would feel better and not get sick as often when it was over. Emily started giggling, and when I asked her why, she answered incredulously, "The doctor is going to fix my insides? That's pretty funny."

We arrived at the hospital at about 5:00 am to fill out all the paperwork. The surgery wasn't scheduled to start until 7:00. Emily was still mostly unaware of what was going to happen. She was cute and chatty with all the doctors and nurses, thinking it was all a fun game. They all treated her and us wonderfully. I was so impressed with the staff at Portneuf Medical Center.

Although we knew what day Emily's surgery would be, we hadn't been given a time. We got a call from the hospital at about 7:00 pm the night before asking us to come in at 5:30 am, so we didn't have time to make arrangements for Hyrum to stay with a friend or neighbor before school. I worried a little bit about bringing him with us to the hospital, but the staff didn't mind at all. The nurses let him listen to Emily's heart and explained the numbers to him as they checked her vitals.

They made a big deal of how "pretty" she looked in her hair net. Emily believed them. After all, she didn't have a mirror. Mike was given a sharpie and asked to put an X over her left kidney and initial it. I assume that this must be to avoid mistakes and lawsuits.

Emily's surgery was scheduled to start around 7:00, but they actually started a bit later. Emily became scared for the first time and asked Mike to stay with her. Such a daddy's girl! They let him stay with her up to the operating room and let her take her Jessie doll in with her. Emily was already knocked out by the time they got there, and didn't even notice that Mike was gone.

At around 7:30, the surgeon came in and recommended that we allow him to perform the surgery on both sides, not just the left. There was only minor reflux on the right side, and if left alone, she would probably outgrow it. However, because of the severity of the reflux on the left side, the surgeon said that the right was likely to become worse after the left was fixed. We told him to go ahead and fix both sides. Hyrum was playing with his Bakugan (Hyrum's new favorite toys, thanks to Dave) when the surgeon came out, and was thrilled when the doctor said, "Hey, Bakugan! Cool!"

After the surgery began, Mike took Hyrum to school and brought back breakfast. Around 10:00, the doctor came out and told us that all had gone well, and Emily was resting. She had lost about 70% of her kidney function on the left side, but he said that 30% healthy is healthy enough. Additionally, her right kidney was still in perfect condition.

The next hour and a half seemed impossibly long while Mike and I waited for the doctors to tell us it was okay to go see Emily. When we finally got to see her in the wake up room, she was in a lot of pain. She kept telling me, "He broke me! The doctor broke me!" Relief finally came when they gave her an epidural. It was still several more hours before they moved her to a regular hospital room.

Emily spent the next couple of days in the hospital, and I slept on a fold away bed/chair in her room. It was quite clear every time the pain killer wore off. She became more angry and bitter towards the nurses and doctors the longer she was in the hospital despite their bribes of books, dolls, and ice cream. Comfort came from the lady bug pillow pet and Hello Kitty balloon Mike and I gave her and the blanket from her Great-Grandma Sears. As she started to feel better, she wanted to get out of the bed. However, every time she tried to stand, she was in too much pain to walk and would collapse into my lap crying. However, when she had enough pain killer, she was her usually happy self!

Although Emily hated being in the hospital, she was scared to leave when the time came. She told us that she was afraid that if we left, she would get hurt more. Thankfully, the Hello Kitty sweater from her Grandma and Grandpa Crooks provided her with the courage she needed. Anything is possible with Hello Kitty! We gave her one dose of Tylenol the morning after we brought her home, but aside from not wanting to be picked up for fear of it hurting, and tiring out quickly, she seemed to be her usual self. That weekend we took her to my mom's house for the rest of her recovery so Mike and I could return to school. Hyrum was upset. He misunderstood, thinking that Emily wasn't going to live with us anymore, and cried, "But now we don't have a girl anymore." Emily recovered quickly. In fact, if it wasn't for the 4" scar, you'd never know she had surgery!

January Randomness

January brought a new semester of school. We also got rid of our black cat Buyo because of behavior issues. We were sad to get rid of Buyo, and Diaho mourned the loss of his best friend for weeks. Eventually, we got a new tortoise shell cat, Kagome. Kagome was a rescue who had been hanging around a house where several large, aggressive dogs lived. She was still a kitten, but was getting older and was scheduled to be put down later that week if nobody adopted her. She looked so much like my mom's sweet cat Goldie that she instantly stole my heart. She turned out to be a wonderful cat! She was petite, dainty, well behaved, and affectionate but also playful and feisty! She had a few eccentricities such as chasing bottle caps and licking Mike's hair, but they only made her more endearing. Even Diaho was happy to have her in our home. She was the perfect fit in our family. Sadly, I don't have many pictures of videos of Kagome. She was only with our family for a short time before she passed away in May from unknown causes.

My step-dad Sherwin has a wood shop out in his shed. Every now and then, he tinkers with things such as the sunflower lawn decoration he made for my mom one year. His latest project has been making what he has called "tone boxes" for his and Mom's grandkids. He makes them out of different types of hard wood, so no two look the same. The one he gave to Hyrum and Emily is made of cedar and walnut and looks as beautiful as it sounds. He wrote a short message on the underside and signed it for them. Both kids love playing it, and Emily enjoys making up songs to sing as she plays. I'm sure the kids will always treasure it, and there just might be a fight about who gets to have it when they're grown.

Weddings

The end of December and beginning of January brought my 31st birthday and weddings. Two of Mike's nieces got married within a week of each other. Their mother must have been going crazy trying to plan and organize! We weren't able to attend Caryssa's wedding due to weather conditions, but we made it to Ashley's on January 7th.

Brock and Ashley were married in the Salt Lake temple. Mike and I were excited to attend the ceremony since we haven't been back to the SLC temple since our own wedding. Unfortunately, Mike's recommend was expired, and mine was left at home. We tried to make some quick phone calls to my bishop and stake president to verify my recommend so that at least I could attend, but the process took too long. Instead, we waited with the kids in the designated waiting room until the family came out for pictures.

We had a nice visit with Mike's family, including two of his brothers who live far enough away that we only see them every couple of years. Both newlywed couples looked happy and completely oblivious to the world outside their own--just the way newlyweds should look!

There was a beautiful reception that night in Wyoming. Everyone danced. I got video of nearly everyone, although a few people managed to dodge the camera. My kids had a blast dancing, particularly Hyrum. I have no idea where he learned to "dance" like that, but he had me laughing so hard that I didn't have time to worry about whether or not he was putting holes in his suit. Although I love the scenes of Hyrum dancing, I have to say that my favorite parts of this video are Mike and my brothers-in-law dancing with their daughters. Too sweet! <3

Christmas in Las Vegas!

This post is dedicated to Sandi who threatened to remove me from her blog list if I didn't post an update soon.

Since yesterday (when I started working on this blog) was July 25th, I figured this would be a good time to write about Christmas! I have been trying to be more positive on my blog, so I won't go into the details of why last Christmas was so difficult for our family. Honestly, it isn't even necessary because last Christmas, we were reminded that people are amazing. They are kind and generous and mindful of others. All throughout the month of December, friends and neighbors anonymously left food and gifts for the kids at our doorstep. We were so grateful.

Mike and I weren't able to afford any presents for Christmas, so we relied on family activities to make the holidays memorable for the kids. We spent one weekend decorating our house. Thanks to our mischievous kittens, Buyo (the black one) and Diaho (the orange one), the tree was never decorated. The tree was a hand-me-down from my aunt Judy and has been getting progressively more ragged every year. Thanks to our wonderfully thoughtful kittens, we will probably be getting a new one next year. Someone should invent a kitten proof tree. They'd make millions.

Another weekend was spent making gingerbread houses from two kits which were left on our doorstep. One kit was a traditional ginger bread house while the other was made of Rice Krispies. Both kits were so stale that we couldn't eat them, but we had fun decorating and making a mess!

The Rice Krispy Treat house turned into a large amorphous blob, so we ripped it up and turned it into snow men... kind of. The weird looking one on the far left was Emily's.

On December 20th, we were driving around Pocatello looking for something Christmas-y to do. I think we were contemplating heading to Idaho Falls when I got a phone call.

"This is Alex Guerrero calling on behalf of the Ryan Clady Foundation."

Now, in the back of my mind, I knew who Alex Guerrero and Ryan Clady were, but I couldn't think of any possible reason why they'd be calling. As a result, all that came out of my mouth was a skeptical, "Uh-huh...?"

"Would your family be interested in going to the Las Vegas Bowl?"

"Very much..." I remembered hearing that Ryan Clady had asked for names of Boise State fans who might be having a rough year and would appreciate a trip to the bowl game, but a family had already been chosen.

"Well, we'd like to invite you at our expense."

"...Seriously? Um... yeah... I mean... yeah! That's amazing!!"

Our conversation continued while Mike remained oblivious in the seat next to me. Apparently, after seeing how well things had worked out with the first family they selected, Chris Carr decided to fund a second family's trip and asked for the list of names. Our family was on the list. Alex told me that Mike was selected because they were impressed by a congratulatory note Mike had sent to the winning family. Alex asked how many were in our family, what our kids' ages were, and what size shirts they wore. Then he told me that, if we were going to go, we needed to be in Boise by 5:00 am the next morning.

Yikes! I handed Mike the phone so he could work out the details. I don't think he believed me when I told him who was on the phone. It was fun to watch him go through the same disbelief I had just minutes before. He turned the car around, and we headed home to pack. We debated whether we should leave then and ask our friends and family in Boise if any of them could put us up for the night, but we decided it was too short of a notice, and opted to sleep early and leave at 1:00 am. Wrong decision. We couldn't sleep.

We arrived in Boise early and had to wait for about an hour and a half in the cold car for the charter bus to show up. When it finally came, the bus was as cold as our car! We tried to sleep in the bus, but it just didn't happen. The drive was long and terrifying as we drove through some horrible snow storms with white-out conditions. Luckily, Alex had all sort of fun activities to help pass the time. We had raffles and trivia contests. Mike and I had brought DVDs for the kids which the bus driver let us play on the bus's system. Thankfully, the other passengers didn't mind watching Cars and Toy Story. We had brought snacks, coloring books, and video games as a preemptive measure to keep the kids entertained on the long drive, but they surprised us by being incredibly well behaved. The other passengers kept commenting on how they were worried when they saw such young kids board the bus, but were impressed by how well behaved they were. Emily would always answer them by saying, "Nobody wants to hear me cry, so let's all have fun!" Despite the long drive and lack of sleep, nothing seemed to upset the kids except when Emily misunderstood and thought that we were going to Lost Vegas. She insisted that she didn't want to be lost, she wanted to watch Boise State.

We arrived in Vegas that evening. The rest of the passengers took a shuttle from the hotel to the strip, but we didn't have any money for the taxi ride back. Instead, we stayed in the hotel, ordered a pizza, and took hot baths to warm up from the cold bus ride. We were all too exhausted to do anything else anyhow!

The next morning, we hit the strip. We figured there must still be plenty to do without spending money. What we didn't take into account was the amount of walking and the amount of rain. Our hotel was "just off the strip," but we didn't realize how far off the strip it really was! The kids and Mike had their fun at my expense as they watched my hair get curlier and curlier from the rain. I don't look good with curly hair. It only got worse as the rain stopped and my hair dried into a nice gravity-defying frizz. However, we were much more concerned about our shoes and pants. It wasn't until after we got back to the hotel that we found out that Vegas was under a flash flood warning. All we knew was that the water was often ankle deep and we were soaked through from all the walking. Still, we were enjoying ourselves too much to care.

When we got back from the strip, we all changed into dry clothes. Mike and I used my hair dryer and the hotel's hair dryer to try to dry out our shoes. In the end, it wasn't worth the effort. By game time, it was raining again, and it only took seconds of being outside before we were soaked. We headed to the stadium early and went to all the free tailgate activities we could find. We didn't have ponchos, and vendors were selling them for as much as $20 a piece. That's a bit too much for a garbage bag with arm holes, if you ask me! We finally found someone who offered to sell us a two pack for $5, and give them to the kids. Later, we saw a kid pull off his poncho and throw it on the ground because it had a hole in it. I'm not ashamed to admit that I snatched it up and put it on right then and there.

The game was the coldest I've ever attended, but it was totally worth it! Hyrum kept telling the Ute fans behind us, "Boise State wins by far." He wasn't trying to taunt them, but I don't think they appreciated it much, and they changed seats before the fourth quarter. An older couple in front of us kept fawning over Hyrum and Emily, and the kids ate it up. Best of all, Hyrum was right, and Boise "won by far."

After the game, we went down to the field and managed to get pictures with Joe Southwick the backup quarterback. Hyrum begged for the chance to meet a real football player, but he was stunned into silence when he saw just how tall he really was. Also, although we didn't get any pictures with the real Doug Martin, we did get a picture with the Muscle Hamster. Back at the hotel, we dried off and piled our beds high with warm blankets.

The next morning, we boarded the bus to Boise, then drove to Pocatello. We arrived home at 1:30 am Christmas Eve, and promptly fell asleep. When we woke up, it was to another surprise. Someone had given our family money to buy Christmas presents! Mike and I dumped our kids off with my parents and went shopping. We all met up at my Grandma Sears's house that evening for presents with the extended family. That night, we gave both kids new pajamas. Hyrum's had Mario, Luigi, and Bowser on them, and Emily's had zebra pants and a zebra applique on the shirt and came with a stuffed zebra. Hyrum ran around pretending to be Mario, collecting coins and jumping on blocks. Emily was in heaven pretending to be a zebra. I think that in her mind, zebras are as close to perfection as anything on this earth. The next morning we opened presents and enjoyed a nice Christmas at my mom's house. I promise you we had a good time even though I don't have pictures or videos. I didn't have time to recharge my camera after Vegas. Oops!

Emily's 4th Birthday

Monday the 6th was Emily's 4th birthday. We weren't able to go anywhere, but we did get a cake and open presents at home. The cake was... an adventure. Mike had bought a tube of frosting to write on Hyrum's cake, but we didn't have a writing tip to put on it, so we never used it. Thinking that I had learned from his mistake, I found a section of writing tubes in the cake decorating section. No tips needed! What I didn't notice was that the set of tubes I picked up were for tinting batter and frosting, not for writing. Really, it's not my fault! I blame the stocker who grouped it in with the other icing tubes and the package designer who decided to put writing tips on the tubes. Anyhow, the box I picked had orange and green which, according to the box, should have matched the cake I picked out. I used the orange tube and tried to write Emily's name. The gel came out uneven, goopy, and red. Mike tried to fix it by tracing over the lettering with the green tube. It came out uneven, goopy, and black.

And it used to be such a cute cake too! Rats.

Since the writing was just concentrated food coloring in gel form, it dyed our mouths green.

Hyrum picked out several toys to give Emily, and finally settled on a stuffed Hello Kitty wearing a black cat costume. Emily thought it was a bat. Mike and I gave her a new pair of mittens and a Strawberry Shortcake play set. She got a Strawberry Shortcake doll last Easter, and it had a cardboard cutout of her pink polka dot cat as a decoration in the box. Emily loved it so much that she kept it and played with it, but she often said she wanted a real cat figurine. Mike and I found a sale on a cute set which included the cat. She was very excited about it.

Because of my mom's knee surgery, Emily got birthday presents from her grandma the same day that Hyrum got his. She got two pairs of "sparkly" pants and a very cute tambourine. She's very proud of her tambourine playing skills, telling everyone that she knows how to hold and play it. She calls it, "my instrument," and even pointed out another tambourine player in the symphony. She's constantly trying to get Hyrum to play a concert with her on the new recorder he got from my mom.

Here's Emily's birthday video. Credit goes to my mom for recommending that I use this song. Sadly, because of the song, youtube is posting ads on my video. Just click the x to close the ad so you can read the subtitles.

The day after Emily's birthday, Mike took her to the hospital for an imaging appointment. She has been getting frequent bladder infections for a few years, the most recent one lasting about a month and a half despite trying 3 different types of antibiotics.

Before the doctor came in to discuss the results of the imaging with us, Emily told the nurse that she needed to talk to the doctor about her hiccups. Both the nurse and doctor were great, and played along.

Nurse: "When do you usually get hiccups?"

Emily: "Every time I go to daycare."

Nurse: "Ok, I'll make sure to tell the doctor when he comes in."

Nurse: very seriously to the doctor "Emily is concerned about the hiccups she gets whenever she goes to daycare."

Emily: "Yes, and Cruz teases me because of my hiccups. Cruz is my boy at daycare."

Doctor: "Boys like to tease you at daycare?"

Emily: "Yes, they're very noisy."

Doctor: "Boys are bad news. Don't you agree, Dad?"

Mike: "Yes. Boys are very bad!"

Doctor: "You stay away from those boys and tell them to be quiet, and your hiccups will go away."

The x-rays showed a level 4 (highest level) reflux from the bladder up to the kidneys. Normally, it's a one way path from the kidneys to the bladder, but on her, the fluids were not only leaking back up from the bladder, but completely filling the left kidney. As her doctor put it, "a bladder infection is not the end of the world, but a kidney infection is." He asked us to schedule an appointment with the urologist ASAP to discuss surgery. He said that there might be an option for a new injection which has had some success in other patients. We're meeting with the urological surgeon on Wednesday to get his opinion. In the mean time, she's on suppressive antibiotics to keep her from getting a kidney infection. I don't like the idea of my little girl in surgery, but I hate how she's so sick all the time, and surgery is certainly better than kidney failure.

Thursday, we met with Hyrum's teachers about updating his IEP. We've been frustrated with the lack of communication from his school. They didn't even have a parent/teacher conference at the end of the trimester! They finally got around to getting him in the appropriate classes when his IEP expired and he was up for reevaluation. After lots of testing and paperwork, they arrived at the same diagnosis as the psychologist -- PDD-NOS. They told us that he is a bit of a dilemma for them because he is miles ahead of his class academically. They said that he is ridiculously smart and talented. No matter how often his teachers tell me that, I still love to hear it! The problem is, he no longer qualifies for an IEP based on developmental delay or academic difficulties, but he really does still need special help. Luckily, they were able to qualify him based on a lack of problem solving language skills and social behavior. Basically what that means is that he is unable to communicate his frustration and work out problems when things don't go his way, and he cries a lot in class. They decided to continue giving him speech therapy and add behavioral counseling with social skills groups. A lot of my doubts and fears about the attention he's been getting in school were alleviated in our meeting, but I still wish his teachers communicated with us better.

That's all the news from Pocatello for now. I'm planning to put up a video of us decorating our house for Christmas, but that will probably have to wait until after finals week. Until then, I hope you enjoy the pictures and video from Emily's birthday!

Hyrum's 7th Birthday

November 17th was Hyrum's 7th birthday. I can hardly believe that he'll be baptized in only one year! We had planned to go bowling with my mom and step-dad the following weekend, but a large snow storm changed those plans for us. Instead, we stayed in Pocatello and took the kids to the skating rink. They had a blast! Hyrum goes to the rink with his school about once a month, but I think he usually plays on the playground equipment and arcade. This time, we made him skate. Emily was adorable. Whenever she fell down, she'd just jump back up, smile, and say, "I really need to practice more!" We probably would have never been able to drag them home if the rink hadn't ended their skate session.

Hyrum thought this was a very funny cake. So did a lot of other people who stopped by our table at the rink.

Among Hyrum's presents was a watch from us. He loves it! We also gave him a flashlight which you can see around his neck in the videos. Emily picked out a ball with Buzz Lightyear, a green alien, and glitter floating in it to give him.

Here's a video of the kids skating. The limbo was so cute. There was no rule about staying on your skates as long as you didn't touch the bar. Hyrum came in second by crawling on his belly. He had everyone cracking up. The girl who won stayed on her skates the whole time. She was incredible!

After the skate session is over, they have the kids put on their regular shoes and dance to this song. You can tell the older kids know the routine quite well. I put some clips of his dance in the previous video, but I wanted to post the whole dancing video just because it makes me smile.