Wrapping up the summer

I didn't think I had much to say until I started looking back at pictures.  I realized I should probably write some stuff down before it gets much later and I forget some stuff.  These first few pictures are from a day we went out to breakfast at a motorcycle shop.  EZ mostly loved the bikes, the food was okay, the experience was fun!

Matching handsome men!         John washed EZ's dirty feet in our kitchen sink one day and he absolutely loved it!

 We like to go on walks, often to our mail box.  EZ has this shopping cart he loves 

to push around when we go out.  It makes a great basket for the mail on our way back!

 We had a super fun Labor Day this year.  We got together with friends we rarely see and 

ate delicious food.  EZ thought they had the best back yard... a trampoline and a sand box!

Then they busted out the slip n slide for the kids... although some of the adults joined in too.  

EZ didn't really get into it but he had fun watching.   

 One day we drove up to the zoo!  It was still a good 90 degrees that day and being so pregnant, I was dieing a bit.  We still had a ton of fun and it was great watching EZ get excited about the animals.  Afterwards we went out to eat in Sandy and visited my brother's family for a little while too.  They recently moved back to Utah (officially) and I'm so happy about that!  The picture at the end is EZ on their tire swing.  He was in heaven on that thing!  

His favorite part, and his least favorite part.  Merry-go-rounds are where it's at!  

Electronic T-Rex's are not as cool...  He desperately tried to get away.  It made me laugh pretty hard!

 It was time for a haircut.  Which means, I do it up funky when it's long.  I took these pictures and looking back at them, 

I can't believe how grown up he looks.  He is such a big boy now, not really a toddler anymore.

 We get together with EZ's friend Anni and her mother, my good friend, Traci a lot.  

These kiddos are only about 4 months apart and they play so well together.  

 Typical day at my house lately.  I'm so big and tired all the time, we lounge in front of the TV too much.  Again, isn't he huge?  When did he grow up?

Another day we went to the nickel arcade here in Springville.  Most of the stuff they have is too old for him, but we found some fun things!

 We went to visit John for lunch (EZ's nap time) one day and this little guy fell asleep in the car like this.  It was too cute to resist taking a picture!

My view from my front door.  I love where I live.  We have horses that come right up to the fence a lot of the time.  

John took EZ out there to feed the horses carrots and a bunch of other kids came over too.  

Life is good!

Other summer adventures

So, besides all the Appendicitis drama, we've actually had a busy summer!  I've spent a lot of days with our cousins down the street.  EZ thinks we are going to see them every time I get him ready for the day or if our doorbell rings he always says, "cousins".  He's such a little cutie!  It's been so good for him to have them close by.  He is still such a shy kid but he's getting better.  A little bit ago it was one of the kid's birthdays.  We went out to the Springville resevoir to let the kids splash and play.  Their mom (my sister-in-law) rented kid sized paddle boards and kayak's and tubes.  John, EZ and I didn't get too far in the water because we still don't have a life vest and John couldn't get his arm wet!  After a few hours of fun we headed home leaving the other kids to play for a while more.  As the day went on I realized I was sunburned, bad.  I had bought that spray on sunscreen a while ago and learned it is tricky to use.  Well, I thought I had learned that but I guess I still need practice with it because sure enough, I missed some spots.  It was a rough week of recovery.  Now I've got some goofy tan lines!

A few days later we went swimming again.  This time, in doors.  John and I took the kids to their grandparents place and we swam in their community pool.  They moved into a retirement village earlier in the summer.  It's a good change for them and they have nice perks, like a clubhouse!  Afterwards we did dinner and s'mores.  Our niece Morgan made me the best toasted marshmallow.  So good that I felt it worthy enough to blog about.  She's got skills.  Although, I played her in a game of checkers that night and I beat her!  But I'm 31 and she's 11.  We were fairly matched.  She had beat John after all!

John recently had his 34th birthday.  How crazy is that?  When did all these years start passing us by?  I made him a nice breakfast, we went to church, then over to his sister Kathy's house for dinner and dessert.  It was a good day.  John's been wanting all the Muppet movies for a while now so I told him to choose the ones he wanted and that we'd get that for him for his birthday.  I was going to surprise him but, it didn't exactly work out that way.  He still never got me anything for my birthday!  I did get myself some new clothes though so that's okay!

We also decided to try potty training.  I knew I couldn't do it on my own and since John wasn't going back to work for a while, we attempted the worst of it together.  We sorta did our own version of the 3-day method.  We started one day after EZ had a nap.  He had one accident where he completely peed through his underwear.  The next one was about half and half.  He started going but finished on the potty.  The third time I noticed just a drip on his underwear so I rushed him to the potty and he went just fine.  Then the fourth time he announced that he had to go and went successfully on the potty.  I was blown away at the progress.  The next day was a different story.  He had many accidents and many successes.  About half way through the day after that we were talking about how he is sorta stuck and not making much more progress.  We decided to get some of our life back and just put him in pull ups when we want to go out of the house or whenever.  Some days he does really well and rarely pees in his pull up.  He seems to be getting better and better.  I absolutely hate cleaning messes so we still put him in pull ups at night and for nap time.  I'm not sure when he will be totally ready for just underwear, but he is making progress and I'm so thrilled about that!  I really want him trained before the new baby arrives.

New baby!  I had my ultrasound today and everything looks great!  I really truly thought I was having a girl.  I mean, I was consistent with all the wives-tales for a girl and yet, it's a boy!  There was no denying that!  We were there about one hour while the tech talked us through everything he was checking.  He confirmed many great things and I couldn't help but feel proud to be making such a perfect little person!  We got lots of pictures and even a DVD of the experience.  Pretty neat!

 This summer we've gone to Thanksgiving Point a lot, been to the splash pad and the library, fed the nearby farm animals, gone swimming, spent a lot of time with family, bought a dining table, gone to 2 movies (Ant Man & Mission Impossible), had friends over for good food, got Netflix, had both my brother's and their families stop by for visits, been to Ikea, been to birthday parties, music classes, and just lots of other silly daily things.  One thing I am starting to really want to get back into is exercising.  I have not been good this pregnancy, especially since we moved into our new house.  We still need to sell our old house... but it'll happen.  I'm grateful fall is approaching.  I'm tired of the heat, and I even have air conditioning!  Once fall is really here, it will just be closer to baby time!  I'm also grateful that we won't have to buy any boy stuff.  I'm excited to use all my old boy stuff!  I'm starting to ramble, my thoughts are everywhere.  I'm sure I didn't cover everything, there was a lot going on ya know!!  Time for me to get back to it-

Post Appendectomy

Well I certainly jumped the gun with my last post.  John got home on a Thursday.  He was not recovering well at all.  Again, the pain would come and go.  I listened to his stomach and heard nothing.  No gurgles, no nothing.  We knew he was blocked.  This poor guy's system was not passing things through.  Finally on Saturday he decided he needed to go back to the hospital and figure out and fix whatever was still wrong.  We got to the ER and boy they sure can make you wait and wait.  We waited over an hour before they got us into a room.  The x-rayed John's chest and stomach.  They couldn't quite see what they were hoping to see so they did another CT scan.  After that, he was readmitted.  That drain he had must have been pulled prematurely.  He had more fluid build up inside that would have to be drained.  Plus, they were concerned his intestines might be infected from the blockage.  I think one of the hardest things to hear was that he couldn't get his surgery until the next morning and he wouldn't be able to eat or drink anything until after surgery.  Ugh!  John was so dehydrated.

The only good news was he would be in surgery very early.  I was expecting a call at 5 am.  John didn't call until almost 8 am.  He said they couldn't get his done until 12.  Boo, liars!  Thankfully though he called back around 9:30 and said they were ready for him and would be coming to get him any minute.  So, I ran EZ over to my sister-in-law's and headed to the hospital.  He was already in by the time I got there.  John's parents got there shortly after me.  We waited about an hour before the surgeon spoke to us.  He said they didn't find any infection and they checked by flushing him three times.  So, good news.  He did have a lot of fluid and would need a drain again.  That we expected.  He also said he believed that the blockage would be able to move its way out now.  Also good news.  So we waited for them to come get us when he was awake so we could go up to his room with him.  We waited and waited and nobody came.  Finally we called and someone told us he'd been in his room about a half an hour.  What?  I was so annoyed!  I specifically made sure I'd be there by his side as soon as I could and again I wasn't.  We got up to his room and he looked so out of it.  His parents didn't stay long and I only stayed about a half hour.  He just wasn't in a mood to talk or do anything but sit there and try not to feel so much pain.  I wished I could do something for him.  I went home and picked up EZ.  We hung out for a few hours then I took him to his grandparents and went back to see John.

He seemed a lot better but still in pain obviously.  After about an hour his parents came, with EZ, as well as his sister Kathy, her husband Clay, Chris, and his mom, Becky.  The men gave John a blessing.  I went home shortly after because again, hospitals are not kid friendly!

On Monday I had a dental appointment in Salt Lake at 1.  So again I dropped EZ off at his Aunt's house and went to the dentist.  A few hours later I made it to the hospital.  John seemed so much better.  I stayed about two hours then went home.   EZ had been with his Aunt and cousins for about 8 hours.  He had a blast, but I was starting to feel bad about all the lugging around.  He didn't eat well that day and I think this whole experience was starting to affect him.

Tuesday was a bad day.  John still hadn't had any real progression (if you know what I mean) and so they were giving him all sorts of treatments to get things going.  He was in so much pain.  It made him very grumpy.  I don't blame him, but I will say that it was not fun to be around him.

Wednesday was my birthday.  What great timing huh?  John called me early, wished me a happy birthday, and told me I should bring EZ down sooner than later.  He seemed to be feeling better that morning.  So we got there around 9 and stayed about an hour.  I didn't feel like going home so I took EZ shopping with me.  I've been wanting a few more maternity clothes.  The ones I do have I'm wearing all the time and cycling through them fast.  It's just no fun to wear the same things over and over.  I found a few good things.  We drove home after that and EZ fell asleep in the car.  I put him right down when we got home and surprisingly he only slept about an hour.  We didn't do much after his nap, I just wanted to spend time with him so he could feel a little more normal about everything.  Then my brother stopped by for a quick visit.  He was making his way to Vegas because he and his family are moving back there.  He was going early for job interviews and all that.  He came by and I got to show off my new home!  We got interrupted by my relief society president who had heard about what was going on and just wanted to show her support by stopping by.  It was nice, but not good timing.  Shortly after she left John's parents arrived.  They were  picking up EZ for me so I could go back to the hospital.  It was a crazy 20 minutes or so.

At this point John still hadn't made progress in the bowel area and he had thrown up a bit so they decided he had bial in his stomach that had to come out.  Poor guy had to get a tube up his nose that went down to his stomach.  It's job is to suck out the yucky stuff.  It had got quite a bit out once I got there.  I saw some of it, it was super nasty.  So it was a good thing, but probably the worst thing John has ever experienced.  He was in so much pain and the tube kept causing him to gag.  He told me when they put it in he was swearing up a storm because of the pain.  After having it about 3 hours he told them to take it out.  He was done.  He wasn't taking it anymore.  I didn't watch it come out.  My stomach is not that strong.  Show me blood, even guts and I'm fine.  But when it comes to the up-chuck reflex, I can't do it.  He was so much better after it came out.  I got a good two hour visit then he told me to go and enjoy my birthday.  I went to my in-laws to pick up EZ and have dinner.  They surprised me with cupcakes and sang "happy birthday" to me.  It was quite sweet!  After I got home I invited my sister-in-law and her kids over to help me with the left overs!  No way am I going to eat 2 dozen cupcakes myself!!  They made it and also sang "happy birthday" to me, on my doorstep!  It's so fun living so close.

John called that night to tell me the news we'd all been waiting for!  He pooped!  Ha ha, it's funny now, but sort of embarrassing to talk about.  It's just this natural thing we take for granted but man, when it doesn't work, it is the worst!  John was so happy he was even crying!  I think that bial sucker thing did the trick!

So, Thursday he called early again to say things were still working and that they expect him to go home today, as long as the doctor approves.  They still wanted to make sure he's functioning before sending him home.  I talked to John at 2:30 and he said it was looking about 4 that he would be able to go home.  EZ was sleeping and I got on the computer for a while.  I set my phone to charge right next to me.  After I while, I went to grab for it and the screen froze up.  So, I turned it off, took out the battery and turned it back on.  Except, it didn't turn on.  I kept trying and it still wasn't turning on.  I kind of felt panicky because I knew John was going to call any minute.  I tried everything I could think of and still no luck.  So I decided I would wake EZ up and just go to the hospital.  EZ does not like to be woken up before he is ready.  It makes him sad and clingy.  We got all ready to go and I realized I could stop by my sis-in-law's and use her daughters phone.  I get a hold of John and he sounds a little annoyed with me.  After I explained he was fine, he was just ready to get out of there!  We eventually made it.  John was even able to walk himself out!  Before heading home I stopped by a t-mobile store to see if they could help me.  They couldn't.  The phone I have is not one they supply.  John and I bought matching phones online from Amazon for Christmas.  So, I've only had it about 7 months.  But without it even being able to turn on, no one can fix it.  So I needed a new phone.  I absolutely hate how expensive phones are now.  It is so stupid to me!  Of coarse the timing couldn't be worse either!  After a few days of pouting, I went into the store and found a newer version of my phone that just happened to cost less too!  So, I bought it.  It's so nice having a phone again!!

Anyway, off topic.  So, John is recovering well at home.  It is just a long slow process.  They sent him home with a picc line and a drain.  He was visited by home health care nurses a couple times too.  They know he's a nurse and able to give himself the medicine he needs so no point in them coming to do it for him night after night.  He had nearly two weeks worth of antibiotics to administer.  He also had to remain on a liquid diet until Tuesday when he saw the doctor again.  (He'd lost almost 20 pounds because of how he had to eat) He got his drained pulled then and immediately started feeling better.  That tube across his belly was causing the most pain we think.  The picc line remained in almost 2 weeks after getting the drain out.  They wanted to keep it to see how he did once he was done with the antibiotics.  If he had any sort of relapse they could easily get him what he needs with the picc line.  Every once in a while he would get some abdomen pain.  Usually after he did something a little strenuous, like pick EZ up.  He started back at work Monday, the 17th.  He said it went well, just a little pain the last few hours of his shift.  He also worked the next day and things went even better.  He is feeling really good most of the time, but he still just has to make sure not to over exert himself.  So today, Wednesday the 19th, he got his picc line out.  It felt like it had been in there forever, especially when we went swimming twice and he couldn't really get in the water...

Anyway, I was finally able to give John, and EZ haircuts.  They were both overdue!  We wanted to wait until his body was his own again just to be careful not get any hair in any equipment.  Take it from me, that stuff gets everywhere!  It's starting to feel like normal life again.  I've been writing this post out for weeks now and I'm finally ready to end it, and move on with the rest of what's been going on this summer.  Big thanks to everyone for their sweet thoughts and prayers for John's recovery.  He should be out of the woods completely now!!  And thanks to all those that helped with watching EZ and supplying me meals.  Difficult times seem just a little easier when you don't have to worry about a million other things.  I feel very grateful to have such great family and friends close by.  What a difference it can make!

John's Appendectomy

Life gets cray-cray people!  So remember how I mentioned EZ and I got sick in Arizona?  Well we think it was the stomach flu.  We both recovered nicely and fairly quickly though.  Somehow John must have caught it because he got really sick... but he kept staying sick.  He wasn't getting better.  I thought maybe he got another dose from someone at work or something.  It seemed like he'd start to get better, then it would hit harder and faster all over again.  He was toughing it out and still going to work!  Not to be too gross here, but he was having major bowel issues and body aches and chills. It had been about a week and a half until he decided he better go see a doctor.  He woke up around 2 on Tuesday, the 21st just feeling awful.  He asked me to go to the store and get him some medicine.  I was gone for about an hour.  When I got home, he took the car to an Insta-care by our house.  He called me about a half hour later with bad news.  They knew it was bad but couldn't diagnose without more intense testing so they wanted to send him to UVRMC.  John swung home and picked me and EZ up.  Yes, he drove us to the hospital.  I insisted he let me but he didn't want to move!  It was a fine drive, although I sure felt nervous the whole way!

We first went to the Lab area but they told us to go to Radiology because their equipment was better.  We swung around the corner, the only thing between the two areas is the Emergency Room, and checked him in.  Took about 10 minutes.  EZ and I went through a kid's bag the Lab people gave us and got to color and play with some stuff while we waited.  Isn't that nice of them?  Anyway, John came out after about 10 minutes of testing (CT Scan and stuff) and he tells me they think it's appendicitis.  We were both surprised because John had not thrown up once and his fever had only been about 1 days worth.  He said he didn't really realize he had pain in his abdomen until they mentioned his appendix.  Most of his pain was in his back.  We had to wait until the tests made it to the doctor so he could diagnose it and call back with the news.  It only took a few minutes.  From John's tone of voice and the things he said on the phone, I was sure it was something simple and no big deal.  Then John turns around and says, yep it's appendicitis and I have to get it removed right away.  It was a bit of a shock!  He sounded grateful that is wasn't something worse or something he had caused (like not being careful at work).

So we had spent about a half hour in the Radiology place.  Then we walked over to the ER and got admitted.  We got in a little room where they had John change into a robe and chill out on a bed.  The doctor and nurses came in and asked questions and what not.  John was joking around with all of them and exaggerating the ridiculousness of the situation! He told me later he was feeling kind of nervous and was trying to lighten the tension, both for his own benefit but also for mine and EZ.  We didn't need him to be freaking out!  We waited only about 15 minutes.  During this time I called both his parents and mine.  John's parents dropped what they were doing, alerted the family, and made their way to the hospital.  My mom was surprised that I was handling it so well.  She went through something similar with my Dad.  He got appendicitis when she was about 9 months pregnant with her first child.  He was in a wheel chair and she was carrying a suitcase.  They say everyone was giving them dirty looks.  No one could believe he was making his huge pregnant wife walk and carry stuff while he strolled in.  Funny right?  Well it still hadn't quite sunk in for me.  Everything had happened so fast.  John didn't seem too worried which kept me from worrying too much.  Plus, appendicitis isn't like the scariest thing in the world.  I knew he would be okay.

Anyway, EZ had been doing really well up until they rolled John into the surgeon's waiting room.  A few more people came and went asking questions and telling him what was to come and all that.  We waited in there only about 15 minutes then they had EZ and I walk out to the waiting room.  John's parents were there having arrived just a few minutes prior.  I didn't think it was all that necessary for them to come, but once I was away from John, it was sure comforting having someone else there.  They bought me dinner too!  I want to say it was about 7:30 at this time.  We waited about 45 minutes before the surgeon came out to talk to us.  He said once they got in there they saw that it was really inflamed.  When they started to remove it, it just fell apart.  So, to avoid infection they had to leave a drain in John's stomach and he would need to stay until Thursday.  That was about the worse they expected it to go.  (We were originally told the surgery takes about 10 minutes with about 15 minutes of anesthesia to kick in and he'd most likely leave the next day.)  Then he said it would be about 45 minutes to 1 hour before we could see him.  By this point it was 8:30 and EZ had had just about enough.  He was getting sleepy.  So I decided I would run him home and put him to bed.  Then I would have John's sister who lives near us come over and sit in our house while I went back to the hospital.  John's parents stayed at the hospital in case John woke up sooner, which he did.  Sadly, I wasn't there when he came to.  I got there oh about a half hour later!  He was a little groggy and seemed absolutely exhausted.  I stayed til about 11 then chose to go home.  He needed to rest and he wanted me to be able to rest too.  Being pregnant and all, I gotta keep myself in mind too.  I didn't sleep all that well that night, and apparently he didn't either.  Pretty typical I'd say.

The next morning I took EZ in to see him.  We only lasted about an hour.  Hospitals are just not kid friendly!  Way too many dangerous buttons to push.  John did get up and we took a walk together.  Being a nurse himself, he is determined to push himself to recovery.  He knows what he needs to do and he makes it happen.  He was better than the night before but I could tell he was still pretty out of it.  He said they think it was caused by the medicine he was taking.  All that bacteria was forced to back up in his system and landed in his appendix.  He had to take something though, he still had work ya know!

Well we went home and EZ had a nap.  I tried to clean the house and put up some decorations so that it would be nice and cozy for him to come home to.  After EZ's nap, I took him to his grandparents house so I could go back alone and be there with John for a few hours.  He was doing much better later that day.  He and the nurses said they expected he could go home the next morning.  So I left around 7, picked EZ up, and we went home and to bed.  Thankfully I got some good sleep that night.

So today, John called saying he should be able to leave around 10.  EZ and I got there about 9:45 but ended up waiting over an hour before we actually got to leave.  So, now John is home and napping, as well as EZ.  I'm here writing this whole crazy experience out so we can remember it for always!   Ha ha, or just for those that want the details!  John will have at least a week off work.  He isn't supposed to do anything intense or lift anything heavier than 20 pounds for 3 weeks.  So, he won't be able to get back to the stuff he wants to do just yet.  But, we're in no rush.  Just grateful for doctors and hospitals and family and friends support and so many things.  We were blessed.  I know it could have been much worse.  Of coarse we'll see just what the bill is yet to be.... I can't imagine emergency surgery is cheap!  But it's all good.  The most important thing is John is here and on the mend.