Heritage Days

I finally got to have a little outing today!!! Woohoo!!! I have been ANXIOUSLY awaiting this day and saving up all of my energy!! :) I went to the Heritage Days Parade with my family!! :) We just walked down to the corner and sat there to watch the parade! My hubby ran back home to get me a dining room chair since I wasn't able to stand for so long!! It was sooo nice to get out! :)

After the parade it was back home to rest and then off to the JILLIAN GRACE DUCK RACE! :) I am borrowing a few photos from Jodi (since I didn' bring a camera - -thank you)!! :)

Each year the Lansink family has a duck race in honor of their sweet baby Jillian who lived only 22 short hours on this earth. She was born with Anencephaly. :( It is so amazing that they do this event to remember her and then donate all of the proceeds back to the Ida Grove Hospital! What a wonderful thing to do for our community and sweet baby Jillian!!

Our friends... The LANSINKS!! :)

Proof that I was there!! :)

After all of the events of the day Nick met up with the Lansink's and watched some fireworks!! :)

THANK YOU Lansink's for including us in this SPECIAL day!

I am so GRATEFUL for our friendship!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME (June 13th)... and all my Blessings!

I have been BEYOND blessed during this surgery and recovery Jodi and Kathi planned a little birthday party for me in 'MY BEDROOM' since I am still bed bound!! :) I had several friends here to help me celebrate!! It was so nice.... not birthday party nice, but stuck in bed lucky to have such great friends nice!! ;) They brought angel food cake, cool whip and berries and it was delicious! :)

The BIRTHDAY celebration isn't all.... all thru this recovery I have been so blessed to have FOOD delivered, FRIENDS stop by for visits (I wish I would have gotten more pics of my visitors :( ), calls, texts and so on! We are sooo grateful for all of the love and kindness we have received! We have some of the BEST friends!!! THANK YOU all!!!

One night... I was lucky enough to have these 2 people stop by for a visit...

and as you can see they kind of liked my birthday gift from Becky... lavendar smelling eye shades!! ;) They look AWFULLY CUTE in them!! ... sorry guys... these are for me!! :)

Happy Birthday in Heaven...

Today is the birthday of our friend's baby (Jillian) who is now in heaven! I spent the day trying to imagine the pain they they went thru and continue to go thru everyday on this earth without their baby girl! - - and honestly, I just could not even begin to understand this kind of pain! My heart aches for them today and every day... what a terrible thing to have to go thru. :(

Being stuck in bed... there wasn't a lot I could do.. but I decided to bake them a birthday cake in PINK and GREEN (her colors) to honor their sweet baby girl!

We took the cake over to them in the afternoon and got to have a piece with them!!

- - YEAH... you all know how much I LOVE cake!!! :)

Then later that evening we were asked to come to the celebration of her life out at the cemetary! We feel so blessed to be included on this special day!

3rd BIRTHDAY celebration of their angel - - baby Jillian!

What a beautiful family... :)

THANK YOU for sharing this SPECIAL day with us! We are so blessed to have you all in our lives!

Post Op...

Surgery is complete and I am home and healing! They have me on some pretty heavy meds... and I took them every 6 hours for pain for the first 2 weeks! After that I cut back to morning and night and then eventually not at all as they were making me very jittery and keeping me up at night.

The surgery was an antierior/posterior spinal fusion. Here are a couple of photo updates... I spared you the stomach photo since the glued that incision and it still doesn't look very pretty! ;) Not that the back one does either... I refer to it as my FRANKENSTEIN scar, but it is healing well, so I am happy!! :)

 

Here I am with my walker... my 'best friend' for the next several weeks! :)

Girls Night Out

Jodi planned a GIRLS NIGHT OUT for me in Storm Lake before my surgery... but she wasn't able to come! :(  It was so much fun!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE these ladies!! We all got pedi's and did dinner at Bozwelz!

Then the girls surprised me with a girft for my surgery... a DIET COKE FUND!!! :) I love these girls... they know me well!! :)

THANK YOU Jodi and Kathi (for planning) and all of the girls who could be there... I REALLY appreciate it and LOVED getting to spend a night out with you all!!!

Lunch with my 3 FAVORITE Boys...

Mom, the boys and I ran to Sioux City for the day for my appointment at CNOS and stopped at Culvers for lunch!! We LOVE Culvers!!! They have the BEST Reuben!! :)

Brylie's Birthday...

We got to help Brylie celebrate her 2nd birthday at the Rec Center yesterday!!! The boys all had a great time!! Drew LOVES his Bry-EEE!!!! :)

Happy Birthday OWEN!!!

Another year has gone by... and our sweet little Owen John is another year older!!! He has made it thru kindergarten, mastered riding his bike, spends as much time as possible playing with his friends, likes to pick at his brothers, and still cuddles his Mom and Dad! :) We are very proud of our little 6 year old!

Owen wanted a GREEN BAY PACKERS birthday party out at Moorehead Park... so I did my best at making a cake (something I really enjoy getting to do - and getting to eat!! ha!) and then I coordinated all of the rest of the items to go with his theme!! :)

He got tons of GREEN BAY items and football items... and had a GREAT birthday with his friends and family!!! :) HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY Owen!!! :)

Surgery Schueduled

I have been having major back, leg and nerve pain and while it is much worse now... I have been dealing with the pain for about 2 years! :( I have seen a chiropractor, had a hip injection (before we knew it was my back), tried PT, had epidurals, x-rays, MRI's etc. etc!! It has been a LONG painful process! Dr. Veltri referred me to see the Spine Specialist when he came to Ida Grove and we have determines that I have Congenitive Spondylolisthesi... what?? Here is a link if you are interested in reading more about it! :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listhesis

Basically... this is what my back looks like...

With that being said... surgery to correct this problem is scheduled for June 5th! It was originally going to be in September, but with all of the work we did on the house I caused more slipping and my spine was resting on my bladder. If we wait, I will risk permanent bladder damage... so June 5th it is!!

Track and Field Day

The boys had Track and Field Day today up at the highschool... I wasn't able to get a good picture of Owen up close but snapped one of Parker and Evan!! :)

And although I know you don't need to see a picture of my legs, I have to show you what the sun reflecting off of the bleachers did to me today!!! I even had on sunscreen... but didn't do the sides of my legs!! OUCH!!! :(

GIRLS NIGHT OUT

Traci invited a few of us to have a GIRLS NIGHT OUT!! We went to Lake View and had dinner and a few drinks!!! It was so much fun getting to chat and catch up!! - - The next day was not so pretty for me... it had been TOO LONG since I have had even 1 drink (let alone 3) and I was definitely feeling it! I think I will stick to DIET COKE next time!! :)

MOMEE Time

LOVE these ladies!!! :)

NO MORE Training Wheels!!

He got it... he finally got it!!! Owen has tried a few different times to ride his bike without training wheels and just couldn't keep from wobbling... but today... he got it!!! :) YEAH OWEN!!! :)

Congrats to the Watkins'!!!

Alicia and Brenton got married in February (on leap year)... but had a reception in April for us all to help celebrate! I didn't get any pictures... but Alicia sent me this one!! :)

CONGRATS you 2!!! :)

BLOWING BUBBLES

Owen John can BLOW BUBBLES!!! :)