Hmmmm....

I hate it when a nice snuggle moment is ruined by flatulence. Dave's or mine. I was watching some program the other day which stated that, on average, people pass gas 14 times a day. So all you liars that pretend you would NEVER do something so unrefined, the rest of us know the truth...

Winter Update

Well...what was supposed to be minor surgery with a short recovery, sure turned out to be a pain in the rear end, or actually abdomen. As I was in the somewhat groggy semi-conscious state of waking up from anesthesia, I overheard the recovery nurses talking.

Nurse #1: There is a cut on that patient's leg. Are they doing something new with hernia surgeries now?

Nurse #2: Uh, no. I think that was an accident.

So I lift the blanket, look down and to my horror, they are talking about me! Apparently during pre-op, the surgeon was trying to make the hole in the sheet larger and cut my leg. This bonus cut actually required several stitches. At this point, I also notice that, what was supposed to be only a 2 inch abdominal incision, actually looks like I had a C-section. It was over 5 inches long. Yikes! Some scar tissue from a previous kidney surgery caused some problems, so lucky me.

Well, needless to say, the two incisions, plus a blood clot in my leg several days later, required much more down time than I had originally planned.

I can't say enough "THANK YOUs", to my mom, for staying the weekend. So many wonderful friends, who brought in meals, came by to chat with flowers, magazines and movies to cheer me up and insisted on taking care of my little boys the next week. And for my amazing husband, who rearranged much of his life to wait on me hand and foot.

On about the 4th day of recovery, I was in the bathroom and Porter walked in (not a lot of privacy at our house). He exclaimed, "Way to go Mom, your going to the bathroom all by yourself. Great job!"

All is well now and healing resumes. Last Thursday was three weeks, so only four more days to go and I can start jogging. Yippee!!!

Also, I want to thank Dave for taking me out on a wonderful date, last weekend. About 18 months ago, Dave and a few of his friends started the SDS (Secret Date Society). The husbands go to the ends of the earth to plan these fantastic dates for their wifes and keep them secret. Dave schedules and picks up the babysitter on these special nights and there is always a small gift for each wife. Yes, we ladies are pretty much spoiled rotten and we love every minute of it! Often it feels like we are in high school again. Thanks babe, for giving me this extra pick-me-up during my recovery. It was wonderful to have a night out and something to look forward to. I LOVE YOU!

Surgery and such!

I'm scheduled for surgery this Thursday, Jan. 14th. Apparently pregnancies and exercise have not been so kind on my abdominal wall so...for Christmas I got a hernia. I know, I thought only men got them too. The old, "turn your head and cough". Apparently I'm one of the lucky 10% of hernia patients who are women. Well, hopefully all goes well. They cut me open and then sew everything back up. Then I have to stay down for a few days, can start brisk walking after two weeks and the killer...I have to wait 4 weeks to run. I'm wondering if this is like the post-baby advice I usually throw out the window, or if this is the real deal?

Thanks again to my mom and Dave for taking time off work to take care of the boys and baby me. Should be an interesting January. Possibly I can get caught up on blogging during recovery.

Italy #1

These first 6 pictures are some of my favorite scenic pictures from the trip. I'm debating which ones to blow up for the wall in our living room, if anyone has an opinion. Italy is breathtaking!

A view from the water taxi as we went from Venice to the island Mirano.

Gondolas at dusk, just off of St. Mark's square

VENICE!!!

Cinque Terre on the Mediterranean. This is one of five villages. The hike from the first, where our hotel was to the fifth took 7 hours. This is the view from where we stopped for lunch. My bootie was mighty sore the next few days from all the steps. Unfortunately, it was to choppy for kayaking, which gives us a great reason to go back someday. We didn't find a scuba/snorkel place open until nearly time to get on the train back to Milan. So we settled for a refreshing dip in the Mediterranean in one of the villages that had a more sandy beach.

Cinque Terre!!!

The double columns around St. Peters, Vatican City.

Dave's mom is very affectionate! After not seeing her favorite (Okay, ONLY) son for 2 and 1/2 years, she went a little crazy. I had to pry her hands from his body and insist that she not sleep on the floor outside our door.

The Mission Home in Milan Italy. We stayed in the room on the bottom right. It was very comfortable.

Seeing family was of course the best part of the trip. I've said it before, but again "I have absolutely the most amazing in-laws in the entire world"!!!

This photo was taken on a little street in Bergamo. It started a trend for the trip of us taking what we called "Engagement Photos". Everywhere was just so post card beautiful.

At the beginning of October, Dave and I went to Italy to visit his parents (his dad is in serving in Milan as a Mission President). Dave's sister watched the boys, which was a huge blessing and I think she should be sainted, especially because all the kids got the flu while we were gone. I don't think she did anything but laundry and clean up puke for several days. Needless to say, we definitely owe her some babysitting, home repairs, a kidney or something.

We spent 10 wonderful days in Rome, Milan, Bergamo, Venice and Cinque Terre. Dave and I are a bit crazy when we travel (maybe when we don't too!). We try to squish in as much as we possibly can. We took a GPS and for 4 days in a row, we hiked, ran or walked over 18 miles a day. This was nice, especially with all the delicious Italian cuisine we were enjoying.

Milan was our first stop. Here we had a wonderful time catching up with Dave's parents and his 11 year old sister, who we hadn't seen for 2 and 1/2 years.

Funny and Embarrassing Moments!

Taking a 4 year-old shopping can be quite embarrassing and funny, either way it's definitely entertaining. Today as we were shopping Porter said, "Mom, pretend you can't even see the shoes, just close your eyes and keep on walking". A little while later he exclaimed (way to loud for the proximity of the lady he was talking about), "Mom, she looks like the lady on the Biggest Loser". Yikes! I smiled awkwardly and we quickly walked away to a place where I could explain why that wasn't a great thing to say even if you were just talking about the lady's hairstyle.

Caleb's Wasp Encounter

Yesterday, I dropped Porter off at preschool and headed to the track with Caleb. While I was running around, Caleb was attempting to squeeze himself under a closed gate to get to the bleechers. He started crying and as I made my way over to him, I figured that he had gotten his head stuck under the gate (He has a huge head). As I got closer, I saw that yes he was stuck and to my horror, he had disturbed a wasp nest and was being attacked. I quickly pulled him out and loved him. He was sobbing and hitting his head with his hands. I counted 12 stings on his face, arm and tummy and there had to be more in his hair. Poor little guy. Luckily, no allergic reaction. He was done crying by the time we got to the car and I gave him a little Ibuprofen when we got home. Amazingly, he didn't seem bothered by it the rest of the day. He did see a house fly later and said, "Oh mommy...bee...bee...OWEEE!".

Primary Porterisms

I have to write these down or I forget them.

Today in Primary, Porter turned to his teacher while the other kids were singing and randomly said, "I have Optimus Prime underpants on today". Apparently he didn't thnik she believed him because he also had to SHOW her! Oh my, Oh my!!!

He also informed his class that his mom is going to have a baby, it's a girl and we are naming it Jesus. This was very interesting because I AM NOT PREGNANT.

And finally a few weeks ago they were learning about the atonement. At the end of the lesson the kids were coloring and Porter's teacher noticed that he had drawn some crosses with people. She asked if one was Jesus and he said yes and then she asked who the bright green person was on the cross next to him. Porter said, "That's the green Power Ranger, he is going to save Jesus." So cute:)

Well hopefully some of you got a little chuckle because we sure did. Thank you Sunbeam teachers