I even saw something on the Sistas board the other day asking me to update my blog... which made me smile, because that means that somebody somewhere actually READS this!!! And, they have checked it a number of times, and can tell that I haven't written a thing on here in many months! That means that they must care about my life, and that makes me smile. :)
So, an interesting side note... a few months ago, Aaron picked up a new microwave oven for our family... one of those REALLY NICE ones that goes above the stove. Life happened, and the microwave sat in the corner next to the deep freezer up until this past weekend. Aaron asked me what would make me happy for him to do this past weekend, and I perked right up and said, "INSTALL MY MICROWAVE!" ;) And, wouldn't ya know, he did just that! He & my dad got it all installed, only to find out that it didn't work... UGH! We got a SCREAMIN' deal on it at Home Depot, and now I guess we know why. Anyway, we called and had the warranty company come out and fix it... it now works. YAY! What I think I like most about this new microwave, aside of the fact that it isn't sitting on my countertop, is the fact that it beeps REALLY LOUDLY if you forget that you put something in it to heat up... That happened to me tonight... as I was sitting here writing... put my leftover red beans & rice in to heat them up for my "dinner" after such a crazy day.... and you guessed it! Completely FORGOT about it! I've got my ipod on, the littles are all asleep (Ben & Eli are at church ball games, some of them are at their other mom's house)... my dishes are DONE! My floor is SWEPT! Aaron is at an Elders Quorum presidency meeting... and my dad is snoring on the couch. LOL So, now I can eat. And, yup... forgot it was even there. But, thankfully, the microwave beeps loud enough (and keeps doing so every couple of minutes in case you missed it) that I totally heard it! YAY!
So, let me go back (just like in my journal but this is faster because I am typing, and as my friend Shaunna will attest, I type like the wind. ;)
AUGUST -- we moved back to our little house. 13 people, 1402 square feet. We had wanted to buy a new house, and keep renters in here, but no matter how we tried, we just couldn't find THE HOUSE and have the right amount of money at the same time. So, we decided to move back in here and save money (yeah, right), and build an addition. The economy tanked, and there went our dreams of adding on anytime soon. Tim turned 12 and was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood at church. GO Tim! :)
SEPTEMBER -- Kept the kids in their same school, cuz we love the principal & teachers just that much! (Ok, and we really DON"T like the principal at their zoned school just that much, too. LOL) At any rate, we kept them where they had been, and school got off to a great start. Millie turned 3, Sara turned 1, Vivianne turned 7, and Aaron turned 36. One more turn down from the bank as far as funds for our addition. Ah well... maybe someday?
OCTOBER -- Fall arrived, along with some cooler weather. Kids pretty healthy... Ben is of course 4.0, Eli -- not so much. Hoping with all hope that Eli will figure out that we must DO work at school in order to get good grades. Continuing to downsize all the stuff we have, as we've downsized our house... got rid of lots of stuff -- thanks so much to Safe Nest for taking it off our hands! :) My birthday... 36 years... officially old! Got pregnant this month.... and discovered that I really AM allergic to lilies by using laundry soap with lily essence in it... broke out into hives from head to toe...of course, Aaron was away on a scout camping trip... ended up in the ER after Aaron came home...
NOVEMBER -- Was approached by a sweet friend at church who moves mobile homes... wanted to know if we were interested in adding on to our house. Um... yeah... but how? No worries! He had a single wide trailer that was a bit older, but in pretty good condition, and we could have it if we wanted it... Ummmm.... ok. Went and looked at it... decided to go for it! Cost... $0. That's right... he delivered it, and had it set by his crew, and charged us NOTHING. Went to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving for a Cheney Family reunion... much fun was had by all! We are so glad we got to go.... pregnancy going well... not sick much -- just when I would get too hot or too tired... Came home from Thanksgiving to a broken into house. STOLEN ITEMS: computer, flat screen tv/monitor, dvd player, Ben's basketball shoes, $5 in change, and 2 brand new pairs of Aaron's socks (they opened the package and just took 2 pairs... nice, huh?)... we knew who did it... the cops came, but basically did nothing.
DECEMBER -- the month flew by SO quickly! We got a giant dumpster for the debris from the addition... the missionaries came over and helped Aaron gut the addition (very much a diamond in the rough, btw, but LOTS of potential!)... they had SO much fun! Going in and out of our house through the laundry room, not my favorite, but I was happy to endure it. We had SNOW! REAL SNOW!!! Right before Christmas break... the kids got a snow day, but it ended up not being much fun. I had been feeling great, no problems... just going on about my business, and woke up Dec. 18th and had pink on my potty tissue. Decided that perhaps I'd done a little too much the day before, and should take it easy... Good thing the kids didn't have school. The boys went to Ian's house (my exhusband) for the day, so I could rest... came home from dropping them at the bus stop to meet him, and was bleeding some more. Aaron came home and our home teacher come over to give me a blessing. Shelley (the other mom) took the remaining kids (including our girls) to her house for the night. About 20 minutes after the blessings, I started to bleed really badly. Scared me pretty bad... really bad bleeding turned into massive hemmoraging, and Aaron took me to the hospital. We chose Summerlin because I had been there so many times, and they had my records. We drove past probably 3 other hospitals on our way, but I don't think our tires ever officially touched the ground. Just as we pulled into the ambulance bay, and the nurse came to help Aaron get me out of the truck, everything broke loose, and the I was in REAL trouble. Long story short (because I still haven't dealt with the gory details, and frankly they're awful and I don't feel like writing about them just now, and I'm sure you don't want to read them anyway), I lost the baby... and a whole BUNCH of blood. When I say a bunch... I really don't know just how much... but I can tell you that my blood pressure was something like 60/30, and I was clinging to life by a thread. I honestly felt that I was dying. The OB/GYN Dr. Dalley came in to see me, and the first thing she said was "you need blood... " and also a D & C. We signed all the consent forms, and I was taken to the OR. Aaron gave me a beautiful blessing just before they took me back, and I remember feeling an overwhelming feeling of love and peace, but was also very worried about the potential outcome. Thankfully, the D & C went well, and I was admitted for observation & transfusions. We started out with 2, but I was so so so weak, that the next day when she came to check on me, she immediately ordered 2 more transfusions. I couldn't even get up to the bathroom by myself, and at one point, just eating was more than I had strength to do. My dear friend Stephanie came to sit at the hospital with me the first day. She read scriptures to me, and we discussed many spiritual things. It was a day I will cherish for the rest of my life.
I spent 3 nights & 2 days in the hospital, and then came home to find that some dear soul had bought a Christmas tree and left on our doorstep while I was gone. Aaron's brother Darrell had taken Amelia & Sara to his house to play with his girls for the remainder of my hospital stay (Friday & Saturday). Vivianne spent time with my friend Stephanie and also my friend Marylin while I was in the hosptial. I am so thankful to these sweet friends & family who helped keep the children calm & comforted during my hospital stay. Thank you so much...
The following week, Aaron & I were both extended some pretty time-consuming callings at Church. Aaron was called to the Elders Quorum Presidency, and I was called to TWO big callings... 1) teaching Sunday School to the 14-15 yr olds, and 2) Enrichment Leader -- a calling that has, honestly, scared the begeebees out of me for many years. We figure the Lord wanted to make sure I didn't have time to get depressed about our loss... or something.
We are very thankful that Aaron found out that he had some vacation time at work that we didn't know about. He took off 12 days (including weekends) between Christmas & New Years, and I so loved having him home!!! It was such a blessing to have him here with us so much...
Also, our Christmas was simple and beautiful. We are very thankful to some very loving friends and ward family members who helped make it a very memorable holiday, especially in spite of the difficult time we had been experiencing. We didn't open presents until the evening, which was nice. We just took the day and tried to get the children to focus on the REAL reason we have Christmas, and what it truly means to us. We watched The Forgotten Carols, and that meant so much to me. We got a new Willow Tree figurine to help us remember that our sweet baby is in the arms of angels...
JANUARY -- Yes, these callings are VERY time consuming... Thankfully, the Sunday School position is a team teaching deal, so I only teach every other week, but I prepare every week just in case my partner can't make it. I spent many many hours putting together the first Enrichment meeting, which we held on the 21st. It was completely AWESOME! I asked my dear friend Kathleen Waite from my old ward to come and speak to us about our Divine Nature. We had the Young Women involved, and many of the sisters brought pictures and items from their Young Women's days growing up. It was SO great!!! Kathleen totally was inspired with the lesson she taught... the Spirit was so incredibly strong, and I was just in awe at how well the whole night came together. I now see how all the callings I have held up to this point have totally prepared me to be able to do this. I received many comments from sisters in the ward about the evening, and that just made my day! :) It truly was miraculous that a mom of 11 kids who just nearly lost her life a month prior could pull off something so amazing... but honestly it wasn't me. It was the Lord, and I thank Him for His tender mercies!
Oh, lest I forget... the day before the enrichment night spoken of above, our oldest son Eli broke his finger at school, playing catch with a football at lunch. Nice... His injury is called "Mallet finger"... the ball hit at just the right angle, at just the right force to snap his tendon, and break the first bone in his left hand middle finger. We ended up in the ER, and then in surgery with a wonderful hand surgeon... he got a cast, and as of yesterday, surpassed the hospital ER record for number of names & phone numbers of girls on a hand / wrist cast! LOL 26 names & numbers... gotta love it. We had a followup with Dr. Hijazi yesterday, and Eli's finger is looking pretty good. He has 2 pins sticking through the joint, and out the end of his finger... it looks pretty cool. I will have to see about getting the pictures up here so you guys can see it... it was gnarly to begin with, but is healing nicely. We go back in a couple of weeks, and then he will be referred out for physical therapy.
I got the hospital bill for my miscarriage last Thursday... $22,000. The OB's bill will be around $1000, the anesthesiologist will be about another $900, the lab, about $500... and I am sure that the bills will just keep pouring in. This all sent me reeling... but not as much as when I went to a followup appt with the OB, and having them tell me that my insurance says they won't pay. Just a little stress... They WILL pay... it's just going to be a fight. Something about that little "opposition in all things" thing... wishing it would pass me by on occasion... wouldn't that be nice?
Saturday night, Amelia came down with a fever again (she had just been sick about a month ago, right after my miscarriage). She has been spiking fevers up to 103 - 104 and beyond. That went through Monday, but finally no more fever... however, Sara is now also sick, and just really NOT feeling good. This morning, when I woke up, I heard Sara hacking and choking with the scary, and yet, very familiar cough of RSV. Dangit! So, we went to the doctor. After a whole lot of rigamaroll and runaround, both of the girls were finally seen. (More insurance problems... look for my upcoming blog entry about how awful our forced socialized medicine is going to be ... my kids have medicaid, and trust me, I don't care who tells you differently, it's no walk in the park to actually get the kids stuff covered!!!) Dr. was great, and when he heard the cough of both girls, he immediately said, "sounds like RSV.... " Yup. Nice. Flu swab & RSV Nasal wash done on Sara... Thankfully Amelia seems to be coming out of hers, and just has risidual cough. However, Sara... still VERY sick, and NOT doing well. Dr. says he will call me as soon as the results come back from the lab (should be tomorrow). In the meantime, it's breathing treatments every 4 hours, and some nasty tasting steroid (anti-inflammatory) liquid for both girls. Hopefully, Sara's insurance will get "fixed" so we can get her her own bottle of the medicine... in the meantime, we are just sharing. We also have both girls on healthy doses of Colloidal Silver ala Grandpa (my dad). The humidifier is going in their room, and they are propped up on pillows so they aren't lying flat.
We continue to work on the addition, and enjoy a visit with my dad & brother. Little by little, things are getting done. I have to tell you about our door... what a blessing! Originally, there was a bay window on the front, but we pulled that out, so we could have a front door actually be on the
Let me go back a bit.. we took Josh to a new psychiatrist back in November. She is absolutely FABULOUS!!! We had a short interview with her med student assistant, and then she sat down with us, and basically told me everything about Josh that anyone ever wanted to know -- like she KNEW him! She'd never met him, but she totally pegged him!!! We totally love her, and have taken a few of the other children to her as well. His medications seem to working better than they ever have before, although we are still having issues with him doing his homework. We will just continue to tweak things here and there until we get it right. ALso, she had a brochure this last time we were there, for an after school program that would be TOTALLY Beneficial for Josh. She filled out the appropriate paperwork to get his Medicaid switched from HMO to full medicaid... so we are waiting on the decision from that. It may come down to us applying for Social Security disability for him, due to his severe mental health issues, in order for him to qualify for this program, but I am excited at the prospect of finding another place that can help us.
Tomorrow is Friday, and Fridays have become quite ominous around here with regards to Aaron's employment. The last several Fridays have been not so great... They took away his 401K contribution matching a few weeks back. Two weeks ago, they took away all paid time off -- no holidays, no sick days, no vacation days. If you don't work it, you don't get paid for it. Nice. There will likely be layoffs tomorrow, and hopefully, he won't be affected. Prayers on our behalf would be truly appreciated. We really hope that the economy will pick back up soon... we really need this job.
So, there you have it. my update. Probably alot more than I had originally planned on writing... but at least now it's somewhat caught up. Oh, we never did get our stuff back, that was stolen back in November... but the detective did tell me that he would press charges against the young man. The young man admitted to it... I don't know where we go from here. Guess I should call & follow up... I saw that young man tonight as I was dropping Eli off for his basketball game (don't worry -- he's just keeping score!)... made me sad all over again to have our trust broken like that. :(
Crying baby....... must jet. Breathing treatment time...
