The kids were so rambunctious this weekend that I suggested to Justin that he should take them to Steve & Kate’s Camp through his work back up care program; however, he’s so busy at work that he wouldn’t be able to pick them up early enough in the evening. So we decided to put Carly in charge of keeping things under control this morning and Abigail in charge of keeping things under control this afternoon. Jason and Katie had piano in the morning and played more Settlers of Catan before Carly left this afternoon to go babysitting.
Abigail got home shortly after 1pm and took Katie to a friend’s house for a few hours while Jason and Drew got to place on electronics after getting some chores done. I spent some time this afternoon sending out revised invoices for young women’s camp. It’s crazy how scattered my brain feels. It was as if I was being asked to cure cancer or do some other impossible task. My mind is just not working quite clearly and I wouldn’t be surprised if I overlooked some mistakes. But I got it done. I made a little progress today on getting some of the food organized for the reunion but I’m feeling like there’s still a lot to be done.
Tuesday, August 6
Today was a prep day for heading to Bear Lake for my family reunion. The kids got a little time on electronics in the afternoon while we were waiting for some laundry to finish up. Both of the girls were able to do a little something social as well as help prepare some meals for the reunion. Abigail also needed to go to the grocery store and Costco since I’m still not cleared for driving. Unfortunately, Costco wouldn't let her check out since she isn't on our account (which isn't possible until she's 18) so Justin had to revisit Costco on his way home from work. This morning Sommer offered to bring dinner over for us tonight and instead of arguing with her I simply said thank you. It was nice not to have to worry about what to feed the family. Wednesday, August 7-12 was spent in Bear Lake at the Hipwell Family Reunion
Summer weather has finally arrived and it was a beautiful day for the YMCA to move my workout from the gym to the outside basketball court. The kids were supposed to have piano lessons but the teacher didn’t end up coming so they had the entire day to play Settlers of Catan, play on the Wii, do some boredom buster slips, and sprinkle in some chores here and there. Justin got home late and we threw together some dinner and then Justin and the three littles played more Settlers.
My friend Sommer gave us an awesome travel book as a thank you for booking our Bali trip through her. The kids love to look it – every country is spotlighted and the pictures are beautiful. So much of the world to see!
Tuesday, July 30
More Settlers gaming action this morning and then around 11am we decided to head into Issaquah to redeem my and Jason’s birthday meals at Red Robin. It was a long process as our server was quite slow and we had a little issue getting both free meals taken off the bill, as usual. But it ended up getting done and the food was tasty.
We also went to Costco before heading home. This afternoon the kids had quite a bit a time on the Wii and did a few minor chores just to keep the house under control. The kids prepared their own dinner and pulled lots of summer boredom busters. One that Drew pulled out was to have a picnic.
I don’t post much about Abigail and Carly’s daily lives much because as they are getting older their lives are spent more and more away from home. It’s sad, but I suppose that’s how it’s supposed to be. Abigail did share this picture on social media today and I thought it was so cute that I had to take a screenshot for myself. I’m grateful she’s got such great friends and as much as I miss having her around I do love that she is having fun and doing good things.
I hung out with some friends this evening. I got home just before midnight but it took me a couple hours to finally fall asleep. One of the many things occupying my mind was realizing that I'm pretty clueless about having a hysterectomy. Some say all I’ll need is a week to recover, some say it will take months, so I was googling about recovery at 2am and came to the realization that everyone is so different. It'll be what it is.
Wednesday, July 31
One final workout today and it was a doozy. Did a little cool down walk in my neighborhood afterward then colored my grey roots, vacuumed, washed sheets, laundry, rallied the kids for some tidying up then let them play the Wii while I got a pedicure. Gotta have pretty toes for surgery/vacation. I managed to get a decent dinner in the table tonight and then tied up some final pre-surgery to-do’s before calling it a night.
Thursday, August 1
My surgery wasn’t scheduled until 10:30 AM today so I had a little extra time in the morning to get some things done before heading to the hospital. I didn’t feel anxious or nervous about the surgery, mostly because I was pretty clueless about what it would entail I think. Ha ha.
Pre-Op – ready for surgery
The last thing I remember is being wheeled into the operating room and noticing the great big lights above me and then I remember waking up and being very uncomfortable and very out of it. I think the only other time I’ve had anesthesia is getting my wisdom teeth pulled in my late teens, early 20s but I don’t really remember anything about it. Coming out of anesthesia was rough. I was pretty uncomfortable, had the shakes and was quite nauseous as well. Apparently my doctor came to see me in the recovery room a few hours after surgery and she knew without as a doubt that I would not be able to go home today. I had no problem with that as I definitely needed more time to come out of it. It took a while to figure out what pain medication would keep me comfortable but not make me vomit. That first day was really rough. In addition to feeling nauseous food also sounded terrible. Everything tasted disgusting and my mouth was incredibly dry so chewing was quite the task. My throat was also sore for a few days due to the breathing tube they had put down my throat during surgery. I wanted Justin to bring me my bag and cell phone after surgery, but he surprised me by also bringing the three younger kids.
This reminds me of all the other pictures of me in a hospital bed surrounded by my kiddos, except no new baby – quite the opposite this time :)
I didn’t anticipate having my kids see me that out of it but I was able to keep it together until after the all left. Probably the worst of it was after they left and into the evening. I was a mess. Apparently my body does not like anesthesia, pain or drugs.
Friday, August 2
I woke up feeling better today. They were able to take out the catheter so I could use the restroom on my own. I have not had any issues getting up and moving around which is great; however, I’ve been quite tired. The vomiting and nausea still continued through today which was frustrating. I know that being able to keep down some food would help me to feel better. I was cleared to go home shortly before noon. Back at home the plan was to rest and recover as much as I could.
Saturday, August 3
I’ve been trying to stay off the heavy pain medications because they make me so woozy. I think I’ve only taken them at night to help me sleep better. Today, for me, was all about trying to get some rest and letting my body heal. Sunday, August 4
I was not up for going to church today. I planned to rest while the kids were gone but ended up needing to work on some stake camp finance stuff while they were at church. Food is finally tasting more appetizing although the flavors are extra intense. So funny. Not much to report today. I did take care of some details for our family reunion which starts on Wednesday, but otherwise was a pretty low-key day as it should and needs to be.
Due to health issues and my upcoming surgery I was unable to attend YW camp with the girls this year. I knew it was the right choice, but I felt terrible backing out only a few weeks before and was sad that I wouldn’t be up there with my girls. I’m sure they are indifferent to my being there, but I do enjoy being able to experience it with them and watch them enjoy the everything firsthand. Since I wasn’t there I can’t elaborate much on the week or the following pictures but know this – our stake puts on an amazing camp each year. The girls look forward to it all year. They learn to lead. They learn to love. They learn to embrace who they are. They grow closer to the Lord. I love that they get to experience this each summer.
As a sixth year, Abigail was able to work with the older youth and adult leaders as a photographer. She had so much fun with it.
Abigail and her fellow photographer friends came up with a theme to dress each day. This clearly must have been neon day.
Abigail is such a sweetheart to the younger girls. She had such a great group of girls to look up to and I love that she can be that for others now.
Carly was a fourth year which means she had a two night backpacking trip at the beginning of the week and then joined up with the rest of the campers on Wednesday-Saturday.
When the fourth years hike into camp they head straight to the river to wash off. It’s a fun tradition and the rest of the campers try to soak them along the way.
Today was an exhausting one. I took Carly and several other fourth years to the church this morning to send them off on their backpacking hiking trip. I beelined it home to change quickly and head to the gym for a class. We were outside today and it was a nice very warm. Summer has finally arrived! After I was showered Drew and I headed out for his lunch date. Drew is the last kiddo this summer to get a lunch date. We’re so busy in August that each kid only gets one lunch date this summer. He was debating between McDonald’s and Red Robin, but Red Robin only because I was pushing for that as I had my free birthday meal to redeem by the end of the month. At the last minute he threw me a curve ball and confidently declared he wanted to go to Chick-fil-A instead. I decided to head to Chick-fil-A in Covington so I could take care of some errands at Walmart, Costco, and Fred Meyer. As a reward for enduring all those errands I told Drew we would stop by Baskin-Robbins and get ice cream with the last of our T-Mobile Tuesday dollars.
By the time we got back home it was late afternoon. Jason and Katie were just wrapping up piano lessons and then we spent some time straightening up the house before they got some time on the Wii. Someone in the neighborhood gave us the old Wii system a few years ago and the kids have really gotten into it this summer since they’ve figured out that the more they play the more characters and such are made available to them. I don’t think I stopped moving from early morning until evening and then I hunkered down at my computer and worked on catching up on documenting our Bali trip.
Tuesday, July 23
Today was about getting things done at home. I spent a lot of the day on the computer working through Bali photos while the kids did several Boredom Buster slips and had more time than usual on electronics. Drew pulled out “do a service for someone” and he decided to make my bed for me.
It’s been interesting because I was supposed to be at YW camp all week with my girls so my calendar was free which is allowing me some flexibility to get some things done that I need/want to. Jason‘s friend Matthew came over a little bit in the afternoon otherwise it was a very low-key day. I have to admit I felt a little guilt in the lack of fun around here lately. I feel like with my upcoming surgery I’m under a time crunch to be productive and I’m trying to take advantage of that. I did manage to get dinner on the table tonight which is a has been a rarity these days. And as if by some strange magic, right as we were getting ready for dinner Jason drew out “make cookies“ out of the Summer Boredom Buster jar as I literally chanted for cookies. He did a great job and even cleaned up his mess. I continued to work on photos while Justin and Jason watched a movie after Katie and Drew went to bed.
Wednesday, July 24
I knew I needed to get in a workout today and also felt the desire to get the kids outside doing something active and fun so this morning I proposed to them the idea of hiking Little Si together. Drew and Katie were excited about it. Jason asked if he could stay home, but that’s kind of his mojo lately. I suspected he would enjoy it much more than he would let on. So we gathered together all the necessities and headed to the trail head. Thankfully it was a beautiful, cool morning. Drew led us up the mountain for the majority of the time. That kid has incredible stamina. We only took a few short breaks for drinks on the way up.
Little Si doesn’t offer as amazing views of some of the other local summits, but it was still beautiful to look down on the valley. We stayed at the top a little while to eat a few snacks and then we headed back down.
Drew’s much more cautious on the way down and wanted to hold my hand most of the way. You won’t hear any objections about that from me.
It was a nice morning and I was grateful that we took the opportunity to get out and enjoy the beautiful area that we live. The kids conned me into stopping by McDonald’s on the way home. We rarely go to McDonald’s. I told them they needed to order something off of the “dollar menu”. Jason chose a sausage burrito and Katie and Drew chose a sausage McMuffin however neither Katie nor Drew finished theirs. I don’t think will be returning to McDonald’s anytime soon. We showered back at home and then I gave the kids some time to enjoy electronics. Justin brought home pizza for the kids and then we watched a movie together as a family, thanks again to T-Mobile Tuesday for the free Redbox.
Thursday, July 25
Last night I hemmed and hawed about the best way for me and the kids to redeem the free pretzels that we received through the T-Mobile Tuesday app this week. I hate to make special trips anywhere without tying it into other errands simply because I am a little too conscious of the gas it takes to get there. It was determined that instead of organizing all of my Nordstrom anniversary sale returns and shipping them back that I would humble myself enough to carry it all into the store and return it in person. The added benefit of that is that Nordstrom’s doesn’t have to spend a bunch of money on return shipping costs and I get my refund sooner rather than later. We also had some returns to Target and needed to pick up the family reunion shirts so the excursion was justifiable. The kids were excited about it and had no complaints running around all morning. The pretzels tasted delicious and I also picked up a salad for myself at CPK in order to redeem my free birthday dessert. It’s funny how much of a kick I get out of receiving free things.
We had to get home by the early afternoon as I had a phone appointment with the hospital to go over preop details. After which I gave the kids some time to play the Wii so I could get some things done in the office for primary and family budgeting. The rest of the afternoon was pretty low-key. After Justin did a church visit he picked up Greenbook a free Redbox for he and I to watch which was really good.
Friday, July 26
I hit the gym this morning for my last killer Friday work out for several weeks. The class I attend on Fridays is 1hr and 15 minutes – that extra 15 minutes is killer! It was nice to have Andrea there once again and be able to walk with her afterward. I was so exhausted I would’ve liked to of just relax the rest of the afternoon but I had some chicken I needed to cook for the reunion and Jason’s birthday dessert to prepare. Justin came home a little bit early and we went to Rattlesnake Lake for the evening. I was surprised that Jason and Katie had no hesitation getting in the lake – the water was cold!
I spent several late hours tonight trying to catch up on the blog. I think I’m finally seeing the light and it feels fantastic.
Saturday, July 27 - Jason's 12th Birthday
Jason requested breakfast burritos this morning for his birthday breakfast. We spent the morning at home waiting for the girls to get home from camp. The kids played some Wii, watched some minute to win it episodes, read, etc.… We needed Abigail to get home in order to be able to bike the John Wayne tunnel trail with Jason. This was the number one thing he said he want wanted to do this summer and today was our best opportunity to make that happen. The difficulty in this excursion is that a car needs to be dropped off at the bottom of the trail and then someone needs to drop all the bikers off at the top of the trail and then switch cars at the bottom of the trail. The coordination is a little complicated and thankfully Abigail was willing to do that for us so we could go. It was slow getting out of here as usual. Things like this always take longer than Justin expects. We didn’t get onto the trail until after 4pm and we knew it would take us at least a couple hours to get down to Rattlesnake Lake. The weather was cool, especially cold in the tunnel, but we were prepared with jackets and gloves and headlamps to make it doable.
I think the entire trail is very picturesque. Jason seemed to lose interest and expressed that the ride was too long. I think part of his negative attitude was attributed to him rear-ended me while I was stopped on the trail and he wasn’t paying attention. I wasn’t thrilled about it – it really hurt and left me some sweet bruises - and Jason felt bad as well. After we got home that night I noticed that of the few videos Justin took during the day he just so happened to catch the crash. I can post it now that the feelings aren’t so raw :)
I always worry about wildlife when I’m out in nature in these parts so I rang my little bike bell periodically just to signal our approach to anything out in the woods. Turns out my paranoia was justified when I spotted a black bear standing just off the trail reaching for something up in a tree. Thankfully I was leading the pack and we stopped before we got too close. The bear definitely spotted us and we made eye contact for a while before she wandered off into the woods. We couldn’t really tell where she was or how far off the trail she had gone. But we proceeded cautiously making lots of noise ringing bells, clapping our hands, trying to be as obnoxious as possible until we could get as far away as possible. My hypersensitivity was definitely at a peak for the rest of the ride and I pretty much ring that bell nonstop for the last several miles.
We decided to get some dinner on the way home since it was already after 7pm. We split a couple sandwiches at Jersey Mike’s and then went home to have birthday dessert with the family. Jason asked if he could stay up and watch Guardians of the Galaxy tonight and of course since it’s his birthday we supported that.
Happy Birthday JMan!
Sunday, July 28
Abigail attended the SnoFalls ward today to listen to two recently returned missionaries speak. Unfortunately it was at the same time as our sacrament metering where we had a sister in our neighborhood speaking as she prepares to leave for her mission so the rest of us attended our ward. Jason wanted to have his birthday meal today so Justin prepared ziti and I made homemade french bread to accompany it. This evening Abigail and Justin went to the open house for the two missionaries. Both of their families have moved out of state while they were on their missions so they still consider Snoqualmie their home. I stayed home and played Settlers of Catan with Jason, Katie and Drew.
After Katie and Drew are in bed we watched the sixth Harry Potter movie. It was a late night.
