Our going away party in the desert

On April 11th we headed back to the desert for a 'little' going away party. Or so we thought... (the 'little' part)




The thought of going back to the desert was my saving grace through the move. I kept thinking, I don't have to say goodbye because we are coming back to see all our friends. Becky Jones, Lori Jackman and Christine Jones were the orchestrators of the shin dig and I should have known they wouldn't have settled for a simple get together. It was a big bash. We were so spoiled and frankley I feel like I don't need a funeral after that amazing party. We walked up to Becky and Rhiem's home and there was this great sign hanging on their garage. Becky designed this great graphic of our family, it's so adorable. She depicted everyone perfectly. Especially me in my bikini. :)



The party was so fun, it had great food that everyone was so great to help bring. And it was yummy food... bruchetta, procutto wrapped asperagus, gourmet brownies, cookies, dips, drinks. There was so much great food, we didn't even cut into the beautiful cake, that of course had the 'theme' of the party on it.
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrJ-2piCexd-h0Pw7PFHfhD11wzzQ0js3MuuNRRKpR502iMsF9_BPiF0OPoTNP-0T2ZwOlLjWcwERb6u5LUG4hgYbIn6DbDM8vFdY18KmkTLGNnl4NMBw7HLaZDzrBeFsO-0Y9/s1600-h/IMG_2252.JPG">

All I can say is Martha Stewart can't even hold a candle to Becky Jones. That girl knows how to throw a party. Every thing she does is 200%, and the party wasn't any different. Becky gave us stationary with the theme on it. Lori made us a tray table with pictures of my young women, and some of the activities I was in charge of. And Christine made an amazing shutterfly book where each page has a picture of our friends with a letter to us from that family. I just cried when I opened it up and read them. I stayed up till 1 in the morning crying as I read the book. I can only imagine how many hours Christine spent on the book. I know that working on computers doesn't come easy for her. ( I usually make their ebay purchases for her) So this was truly a labor of love.







We played a mad libs game and another game that Roxanne Risenmay so creatively tweaked so it was personalized for us. We had such a great time visiting with everyone and hanging out. We love our friends in the desert and hold them near and dear to our hearts. We are grateful we are only a couple of hours away so we can visit often. And we hope that everyone takes us up on our offer to come and visit us. I have to include the adorable personalized napkins that Becky had done, and the AMAZING take home. It's a gigantic Hersey's candy bar that she designed a new wrapper for with a picture frame of us and a surf board key chain. I am still amazed and taken back by everything. Thank you Becky, Lori and Christine. And everyone else who helped prepare and bring goodies. We are so blessed to have such great friends.

Dinosaur Park

I joined a group of moms and we took our kids to the Dinosaur Park. It's a community park in Laguna Hills that has a great Dinosuar theme. One of the moms buried 'dinosaur eggs' aka easter eggs and the kids brought their sand buckets and shovels and dug them up for fun dinosaur prizes. We had a picnic lunch and I tried my hardest learning names of other moms. Brent is so used to me introducing myself and the kids that we were in the bathroom at the park and a random lady walked in. And Brent looked at her, and said, "name?" "Me, Bent... I two.... he points to Taylor, and says " Tay... five...." It was halarious!

The Big Move

I know it's pathetic that I don't have pictures of the move, kind of sad, I know. The movers came in like gang-busters on Tuesday and packed our entire house in a day. They were amazing. The house was stacked with boxes. The kitchen wall going into the family room looked like it had a new built in made of cardboard boxes. It's amazing that it would have taken me weeks to do what 8 people did in a days work. I guess that's why they are professionals. The next day, Wedesday another crew came to load everything. It took two 25 foot trucks to haul our stuff away. (Where did we accumulate all of this??) And how will we move in a year by ourselves?? Even more motivation to buy the house we are now renting. One, because we love it and two because we wouldn't have to move. :) So then on Thursday, they unloaded at our house here in Dove Canyon. We really love it here. They day after we moved in the neighbors down the street came to meet us, they have a sweet little gir Taylor's age and they have been playing ever since. In the first week, we had the beehive class bring us cookies and introduce themselves as potential babysitters. Then the Relief Society presidency, the Elder's Quorum Pres. came to visit and then the Bishopric. Wow, we were impressed. They know how to roll out the welcome wagon.
We have been cold... our thin desert blood is getting used to the colder nights and mornings. We live near Rancho Santa Margarita Lake, and after we take Taylor to kindergarten in the morning Brent and I go walking around the lake. It's so pretty, they have ducks that Brent likes to feed and it's amoungst the prettiest backdrop of mountains. The hard part is convincing Brent to wait until I've had some sort of a workout before we stop to feed the ducks. We took Taylor after school last week so she could see what Brent and I do in the mornings.
Taylor has adjusted well to her new school. She came home from the first day and said, "Mom, my whole class are my friends! " I love the sweet accepting nature of kindergarteners. I am so grateful she loves it.
We do miss our friends in the desert and miss our house. ... it's still for sale by the way if anyone wants a great house. We are grateful Marriott bought it from us when they did, because the price is still dropping.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! We had a great Easter Sunday. By the time Sunday came around, the kids had already done a few hunts already and we had a huge stash of candy piled in the kitchen. How does that work? I buy lots of candy to fill eggs for school/ friend easter egg hunts and then Taylor and Brent collect the eggs, and we still end up with three times as much candy. ?? I guess the kids are expert hunters.
We enjoyed our last Sunday in the La Quinta Ward, so sad... and then drove to Hemet to spend Easter with the Jones family. They have a great tradition that the Easter bunny delivers the goodies to the dad's who go out in to the yard and hide everyone's presents/ candy/ and eggs. Meanwhile the kids have to stay inside behind closed doors and shutters. When everything is hidden and skattered outside, the moms hand the kids their "lists." They have all their goodies on the sheet of paper that they have to find to put into their basket. It's kind of like a mini- Christmas. But hey, there wouldn't be Christmas if there wasn't an Easter... right. So the kids run around and find their books/ movies/ and candy hanging in trees, behind bushes and even floating on kick boards in the middle of the pool. It's lots of fun and the kids love it.

Taylor's New Do

It was time for some haircuts around here. Taylor's was long and beautiful but hard to brush especially when it was tangled. And it always turned into a frustrating experience for the both of us. So after one of those times when she's screamed at me for pulling her hair while I was brushing it, I threatened that we should just cut it off since she doesn't like brushing it. She surprisingly agreed. wow... I wasn't sure what to think... I've loved her hair long but thought I should follow through. And the more we talked about it the more she really wanted it cut.. so we did it today. And it's adorable! She keeps running her fingers through it and admiring her new do. Brent go a haircut too, but we'll have to post his later because he's napping and this is the only time I have to add this to the blog.

Fun/ Sick in Newport Beach....

Last week we spent Wednesday through Sunday in Newport Beach. We scheduled the trip to go house hunting and enjoy the Newport Coast Villas. As luck would have it, Eric caught the office bug that was going around and was so sick. It's like he had a cold plus flu mixed with migraines. poor guy... he was miserable. And the kids and I were so excited to be at Newport, we were ready to jump in the pool and go to the beach, go down to Triton's cove (the kids activity zone at the resort, and search for bunnies- the kids personal favorite). So we did and left dad in the Villa for some peace and quite and a little ESPN when he felt like it. Well the whole reason for our trip was to find a house so I left Eric and the kids and went with our realtor to see the list of houses we had narrowed the search down to. Some of you might think I'm a horrible wife for leaving my sicker than a dog husband alone with the two kids, but we had no choice. We had to find a house. So I went to the store and got mini apple juices, smuckers frozen PB&Js, fruit, apple chips, and treats and put them all on counter top level so Taylor could reach them. I changed Brent's diaper before I left hoping he save his daily 'treat' for me when I got home --7 hours later. -yeah right. Taylor was in charge(which she loved) and Blue's Clues and Disney channels were on two of the TVs. So I left for the day with my cell phone very accessible. Surprisingly they did very well. The kids were stir crazy when I got home, Eric wasn't feeling any better, but he was trying to be a good sport. Anyways, we found a house, yeah. And we went to our new ward, The Live Oak Canyon Ward in the Santa Margarita Stake. The ward was great, there are 100 youth! wow.. Tay loved primary and overall it was great. This move is so bitter- sweet. Sad to leave our great friends here, but exciting for our new adventure.
Eric was feeling a little better by Saturday and we found the greatest little restaurant on the beach to have breakfast. It's on Crystal Cove Beach and it's called the BeachComber. The kids played in the sand while we waited for our table and Taylor built a mermaid. The breakfast was DIVINE! We are food lovers what can I say, we are definitely going back. It's a tiny restaurant along the beach with lots of other little houses. It's actually where they filmed part of the movie BEACHES, with Bet Midler. It was a great ending to our little get away. And we are glad that Dad is now feeling better.

We found our home!!

So it is official, we have gotten our house in Orange County and found the perfect one for us! It is located in the community of Dove Canyon that sits in Rancho Santa Margarita. It is right off the 241 in South County. And yes, it has a guest room and bath for all of our friends that live in the Desert heat during the summer!!!

My Super Mom

My mom came to stay with us for a week to help out while I had my surgery. All I can say is she is My Super Mom, and the kids Super Grandma. She is just amazing. It was so fun to have her out and I couldn't have survived the week without her. She came out the weekend before the surgery so we could have a little fun before. We spent Friday at Disneyland and had so much fun. Brent rode his first rollercoaster... the Matterhorn, and then Chip and Dales coaster in toon town. He was done after that, he was a little scared.
My mom was so helpful cooking, cleaning, playing with the kids, taking Taylor to school, waking up with Brent at 6am. I was so spoiled and it was so nice not to have to worry about everything else and just rest and recouperate. There was a time when I was just clearing my throat and my mom came running across the house, drink and straw in hand saying, " you need a drink, it sounds like your throat is dry." She spoiled us rotten and we loved every minute of it. Thanks mom.

WE ARE SO BLESSED!

This week has been a roller coaster of emotions. Having my thyroid removed, recovering from surgery and getting over the anesthesia, and trying to forget what the doctor told us after the surgery. (that he didn't like the way it looked and he thought it was cancer)...yuck.. Finally today we had our post. op. appointment to get my pathology results. The Dr.'s office called this morning to cancel my appointment. I was like, NO, I'm still coming, I have to know today! We already had arrangements for the kids to go places and Eric moved his schedule around so we could drive the 3 hours round trip to go to Riverside. All the Dr.'s in the office and the surgeon were booked for today so I convinced her that my internal medicine doctor who is here in Palm Desert SHOULD give me my results. He's in the same network of doctors. Luckily they said ok. So it worked out that we didn't even have to drive far. (I don't know why they didn't do that for me in the first place)
My doctor was so nice and cut right to the chase and told us everything was OK! Whew... He explained the lab results as 'adenomatous nodules with cystic degeneration, fibrosis, etc.' Which are big words that mean BENIGN, ugly and swollen, but not cancer. Yeah! He of course said he wasn't my surgeon or endocrinologist and I should still see them but as far as he could tell, everything looked OK. We asked for the A.OK to start trying again for babies, and he wanted me to make sure my thyroid levels were stable with the endocrinologist first.
But, we are just so elated that it came back CLEAR! Through the last week I've mentally gone down many scenarios in my head of what ifs... and I just feel so blessed that this trial can now be through. I have been so comforted through the entire thing, really I've been OK. I never felt like cancer would be something I would have to go through right now. But after the Dr. talked to us after surgery, we started preparing ourselves for something different. And if we would have had to go through radiation, etc. we would have been OK. (But I'm so glad we don't) I just have so much hope and faith. What would I do without the gospel? I have grown closer to the Lord through this ordeal, and maybe that's why I needed to go through it. But I just know that whatever we have to deal with in life, the Lord strengthens us if we rely on Him. I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood, and an amazing husband who is a worthy priesthood holder. Our family and friends have been so kind and have given us a shoulder to lean on, and been so supportive. Thank you for all your prayers and kind words. I have never felt so loved, thank you.
I didn't want to make this long but a few months ago when this health stuff started we also challenged the YW in our ward to memorize the Living Christ. We as leaders did it with them and all went to Disneyland as a celebration of us all doing it! (I ended up missing Disneyland because I was busy riding in an ambulance to the hospital having a dramatic miscarriage) But as I've gone through all of this I was so grateful for the words of the Living Christ that have been imprinted into my mind. All the things we go through in this life, He has experienced all the pains, disappointments, and heartache. I guess if we want to try to become like Him we have to experience at least a small portion of what He has.

Honesty

I am not the most eloquent writer when it comes to my blog, or really in any sense... and I've spent tonight catching up and changing the post date so it 'appears' I was consistently blogging, so I'll apologize now for my blubbering, or going on and on. I hope I make sense. After reading my friend Lillie's blog about how we all tend to take the great things in our lives and post them onto our blogs. Almost appearing perfect with our well thought out, edited pictures, and cute things our kids did and said that day. I am inspired to write this little entry. I hope this isn't depressing for anyone but thought since I want to turn this blog into our family journal/ scrapbook I should record all of this. And since my life is far from perfect but so far... I think I've just tried to put all the great things about us on here. I'm including a little honesty... just to keep balanced and a little real.

Last fall when I was barely pregnant I found out that the nodules that I've had on my thyroid for the last few years were now 'suspicious' and that my thyroid needed to be removed. The biopsy's I've had the last few years always came back benign and I've had the cysts aspirated/ drained and we've moved on. Well, I think it was good I changed doctors and went to an endocrinologist and got things looked at closer. They couldn't tell me if the biopsy was benign or malignant, and since I've had these thyroid issues they said we'd need to remove it to make sure the pathology was clear, and this way wouldn' t have to worry about any more growths.

So we took this news in stride and prayed for inspiration in what to do since I was pregnant and the surgery might cause me to miscarry, or hurt the baby. So we decided to put it off until this summer after the baby would be due. At 13 weeks, I ended up miscarrying just the week before Eric and I were scheduled to go to Hawaii. My sister's ticket was already bought and everything was in place. (she came to take care of the kids while we were gone) So after begging my doctor to still let me go (and promising him a Hawaiian pineapple in return.) (the deal was I could go, but no swimming and no sex) ... so much for Eric's Hawaiian dreams... I met Eric in Hawaii and I did my recovering on the beach laying out trying to forget that I wasn't pregnant anymore. And wondering if this was the Lord's way of telling me that I needed to deal with the thyroid issue and then worry about expanding my little family.
(I hope I don't sound flippant about all of this... I think I've explained it so much and I'm super tired and probably still drugged up a little)
After many doctor's visits and drives back and forth to Riverside I finally had my surgery on Monday. My mom has been out here this week helping me and being the Super Grandma/ fill in Mom. The nurses told me I was a 'light-weight.' And unfortunately they we not referring to my actual weight. They meant I responded to anesthesia quickly without alot of drugs. I'm sure it's because I don't drink or do any drugs. (I'm so grateful for the Word of Wisdom)
So coming out of surgery was hard because I was so out of it and of course in pain. The surgeon spoke to us after and told us he didn't like the way the thyroid looked but couldn't tell us for sure until it went through pathology. ... not what we wanted to hear. But we are hopeful and I keep holding on to the priesthood blessing Eric gave me a few months ago when this all arose and he blessed me that it wouldn't be cancer and that everything would work out.
I have such a great husband who was by my side the entire time, helping me throw up over the side of the wheel chair and holding my iv for me all the while. He has been such a strength to me, I'm so grateful for him.
So now I am thyroid-less. if that's a word? I'm taking medication and slowly getting back to normal... i can't believe I'm still awake. it's all the napping I'm doing... And now I have this lovely incision across my neck... as my daily reminder. Brent keeps looking at it and saying, "band aid?" and blowing on it. :)
I have been so blessed through this whole ordeal with a supportive family, such great friends, my sweet little young women. (They had New Beginnings last night and I of course had to miss it but the presidency came over with a beautiful bouquet of roses with notes attached to each rose from a different girl) our young women's is so amazing... that's another post
At this point I have to be grateful for these trials, really so many other people have much bigger issues in their life to work out. It has brought my family closer and I have grown closer to the Lord. I just have to learn to rely on Him and accept His will for me. We will keep everyone posted on Monday, when we get our results.
Eric thought I should include my picture of my 'lovely' neck. Sorry if it's graphic.
...I never knew how heavy my head was until it was hard to hold up...