Uncle Jake visiting!

Conrad and Jake bonding

We love having Uncle Jake here with us. We've had lots of comic relief with him here. It's been therapeutic for Josh. It's been good for our kids, too, they have warmed right up to him.

Josh's surgery went well

Warning: contains graphic discussion
Josh had an abcess taken care of yesterday. He was writhing in pain beforehand. It looked like it was starting to break open, from the inside out. He was constantly cringing from the lightning-like pain shooting up his back and down his leg. We aren't sure what caused the abcess. An abcess is basically a pocket of infection. After his surgery to remove the cancerous tumor back in May, it probably filled up with fluid. The radiation causes a rind-like shell to form in the area the tumor was removed from, so the fluid has nowhere to go. Josh probably had some bacteria in his body, which we will find out on Monday what it was, that got in that area, and caused infection.
The Dr. scraped around the pocket, to make it like a fresh wound, then stitched it together, to help it aid in healing back TOGETHER. So hopefully there won't be a pocket/cavity area for fluid to collect in. Josh is on the strongest antibiotics you can take orally. The next strongest step would be to have an IV at the hospital pumping antibiotics into his body.

Josh feels like a new man. He feels so much better!!! I've never seen Josh in so much pain. It was a pretty stressful morning and drive to the hospital. It's a 30-40 minute drive going 65-80 MPH on the freeway. Josh wasn't wearing his seatbelt, he couldn't sit, he reclined the chair as much as he could and braced himself on his side. Josh kept cringing like a lightning bolt really was going through his body. It was "striking" him every 2 or 3 seconds. When I'd go over the slightest bump it would "strike" again. He was an onery old cuss. He's apologized over and over to me since then. I didn't take his oneriness with one grain of salt, I understood what it's like to be in pain!!! He said, "I imagine this is what childbirth pain is like." I told him I think he had it worse!!! Contractions come and go... every 2 minutes. His pain was every 2 or 3 seconds. Just constant. Awful.

The funniest part about all this was when they brought him to post-op recovery and I was waiting in the room. The nurse said, "There's a woman waiting for you in your room." He said, "That would be my wife. Of course, if she still is my wife!" Right before I saw him I said, "I'm not sure that's my husband." They wheeled him in... it wasn't Josh!!!!!! I was so embarassed!!! I quickly ran out, wished him good luck in recovery, and tried to gain some composure! They brought Josh out about 1 minute later, so it was OK. It was really funny, though.

Wonderful Wonderful... crap... wonderful!

WONDERFUL
We had such a wonderful time on our over-nighter. It was sooo relaxing. We had the most relaxing and wonderful tasting dinner, sitting in the corner of a restaurant surrounded by windows, on about the 22nd floor of a hotel. It was a quiet dinner, not that many other people there. Josh had prime roast with aus jus and baked potato, while I had a sesame-crusted Salmon with rice noodles and cabbage. The salads were wonderful, too. Josh had a classic caesar salad and I had a spinach with strawberries and warm bacon. Ohhhhh my word, sooo good!!! For dessert we had a cheesecake with bits of orange in it, berries on the side, and a reduced berry sauce. Ohhhhh!!! Soo goood!!! Have you seen so many letter "o's"? Ok, I will stop now.

We had such a nice time together. We didn't ever talk about our kids, and we still really enjoyed being with one another!!! We were laughing and conversating like normal child-less couples do. It was nice to know we can still do that! We really had so much fun together.

We went back to our hotel room with a detour to the apothecary to buy some candy (six-lets anybody else's favorite?), relaxed for a bit, then went down to the swimming pool. I was ready to go to sleep before we went swimming, but I'm glad we went anyway. I just dipped my feet in the hot tub (it was a chilly swimming pool) but Josh really enjoyed the pool. It felt good on his hip. I got to talk to some interesting people in the hot tub, one which I'm pretty sure she had alcohol in her purse, and pretty sure she was already drunk.

I should mention that at this point I felt like I was married to a 90-year old man. Josh was hobbling big time. He was in so much pain!!! Poor poor Josh. Poor poor Grandpa Josh.

After the pool we went back to our hotel, watched an episode of Gene Simmons Family Jewels, then went to sleep. Crashed. 10 o'clock at night. Just call us both Grandma and Grandpa.
We slept in until about 9:45!!! Hallelujah. That is the best thing, to sleep in.

Josh was still in excruciating pain, he didn't sleep that well, so he decided to call his radiation oncologist Dr. to see if what he was experiencing was normal radiation side-effects. He made an appointment for 12:45. We went straight from the hotel to my Dr. appointment, then straight to Josh's Dr.'s appointment.

As we were leaving the hotel, Josh noticed a sign for the gender of our baby. We were parked on level 3. This was baby #3. And the button on the elevator for level #3 happened to be circled with a pink color. Josh said, "You're going to have to come back here and take a picture for your blog!" I brushed it off, I knew baby #3 was all male.

WONDERFUL
read blog post below this one

CRAP
We got to Josh's Dr. appt at 12:15. Along the way Josh made up a new swear word for the pain he was feeling. We were so proud of him, we High Five'd and everything, only to find out thanks to the Urban Dictionary that it was already made up.

I drove. I've been the driver a lot lately. Josh hates it, but he hates the pain even more. I felt like Josh was the woman and in labor. He was cringing in pain, breathing audibly, trying to find a comfortable position, and a little onery. We laughed a lot though. I'm serious, I haven't laughed so hard for a long time with Josh's silly jokes.

Josh is having outpatient "surgery" tomorrow. I guess we are calling it surgery. The fact that Josh is in so much pain makes them think they need to go in, check it out, do a culture, and clean it out. This isn't so crappy, because Josh will finally get some relief, but he was supposed to leave on Monday for Wichita. He might call and try to post-pone his first day to Wednesday. We'll just wait!!! We're awesome at waiting. That's all we've been doing lately.

WONDERFUL
Josh's brother Jake has decided to come see us!!! Jake's flying in tonight, (Thursday) on the eve of his wife's birthday. Poor Lea!!! Also his daughter is McKall, the one that was diagnosed with Leukemia within a day of Josh finding out about his cancer crap. We love Jake, he is awesome. We're excited to see him! I hope Lea and McKall forgive us for taking their husb and dad away. Jake has also offered (since Josh will be in Wichita all of September) to help me drive home to Utah with the kids! I want to seriously take him up on the offer, but I also want to wait to see how everything goes with Josh. Big Breath.

Thanks to my awesome wonderful friends who have been life-savers. Tara, the wonderful adorable Tara baby-sat our kids while we were on our over-nighter... which turned into an overnighter, all afternoon-er. Our kids absolutely love her. So do we. :)
Thanks to my other friends who were willing to baby-sit for me tomorrow while Josh was in surgery, also for the dinner brought in to us tonight (mmmm, yummy white chicken chili). I was brought to tears by the wonderful friends that support us.

Also a special thanks to our anonymous Mr. Service. It was sooo nice to just relax!!!!!

Thanks to everybody else who has prayed for us. I definitely feel the prayers just when I need them. It's wonderful.

Yes!!!!

More silver lining amongst more bad news!!! (Yet, it'll all be OK.)
I swore I knew what baby #3 was going to be. I was right with #1 and #2. I was wrong!


BABY!!! And it's a she!!! (Look for 3 white lines by the arrow). I swore that big circle at the top of the picture was a large testicle, because I was sure this baby was a boy!!!

SURPRISE! I love surprises!!! I am really really excited and happy to have another sweet little girl. We are so lucky. Conrad was actually totally happy about having another sister! We were worried, just because he had mentioned so many times before about his brother and how this one was a boy, too. Now, we've got to prepare miss Princess Amelia. She's definitely either in the terrible 2's or has some attitude issues. I'm 18 weeks 2 days, and the baby was measuring 18 weeks 5 days. So we are pretty much right on. She weighs 10 ounces. !!!!!!!!!!!

Update on Josh's Dr. visit

The Doctor doesn't think it is a wound infection. But he wants to have Josh looked at again in 10 days to see how it looks when Josh is not on an antibiotic, and to judge if it's better or worse. Josh will be in Wichita (I think... or is it Topeka???.... pregnant brain happening all of a sudden) in 10 days so Dr. Rosenthal is going to recommend Josh to see someone there. If it is worse, we may have to have it aspirated (drained). Yuck. But that may not do any good, they usually fill back up. I'm still a little confused about it all. Basically what I said is what the basics are.

Josh no longer has a fever, body aches, chills, etc. But his hip is absolutely KILLING him.

I'm kind of dazed right now. We just got home from the Dr. and my house is spic and span!!! The cleaning ladies came!!!!! I don't know how much it cost, but oh my word I am definitely going to be looking into cleaning ladies when we can afford it. Awesome!!!!!!!

p.s. My favorite part of the trip was when we were stressed out, driving down there in a hurry, we passed a Greek Restaurant and Josh said, "That looks like a cool place, the Gyro Place." He didn't pronounce it the correct way and I busted up laughing. Josh is usually so correct and right about everything that it is wonderful when I see him make a tiny mistake. Instead of pronouncing it Hero, he pronounced it Jyro, rhymes with Pyro. I love Josh so much!!!

Make your Prediction

Being brave again here. Nice lovely photo of my middle. And don't notice anything else, please? Except maybe that it's still summer.
Leave a comment saying what you think we're having. We have our ultrasound on Wednesday!

Thank you

Thanks for your prayers, once again!
Josh felt good during his exam. We'll find out how he did in about 6 weeks.
Dr. appt is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

The Boards, update on how Josh is feeling

Josh has left to drive down South to take his big test. It's scheduled from 8am til 4pm.
He was starting to feel better last night.
This morning he has body aches, chills, a nervous stomach... He hasn't been able to eat much.

Spare him a prayer?

Lots of love and thanks to you who are rooting for Josh, we had family prayer this morning and I prayed that he would feel the prayers of all those praying for him. Also a lot of other things.

Thank you.

Thankful for Dr's who answer pages at 4 am

FYI, I am writing this post first thing when I wake up, so pardon my writing style and errors.

Josh has been studying 14 hours everyday for the last week. Saturday (yesterday) he started feeling more intense pain in his hip. His surgical site was very swollen and hard (covering about the size of a hand with fingers spread out. I almost just typed with his springers fread out.) When he went to bed last night it was looking more red and bruised and swollen than it ever has. Josh was having a really hard time studying. He would take a break, come upstairs, and just be writhing in pain. I asked him if it was uncomfortable to sit on his office chair and he surprised me and said, "Yes, and so I have been kneeling." my response: WHAT??!!!

4 am, Josh wakes me up. Josh is fevered. I get him some ibuprofen, water and a cold wash cloth. I have no clue what else to do. We get up, try and think about what to do. We know that if we call anybody they'd probably say to go to the ER at the mention of recovering from cancer treatments and fever. His fever is 100.4, so not deathly. Plus he shouldn't have any cancer!!!!!!!!!! I call Dr. Rosenthal's office (he is the Doc who did Josh's surgery, a well-recognized Doctor who is awesome at his job). On the answering machine it says the usual, "We're closed, if this is a medical emergency call 911." Thankfully after that it also said, "If you need medical attention, please call :913-etc etc." Phew. I called that number, they said they'd page Dr. Rosenthal and if he didn't call back within 20 minutes to call them again. He called about 10 minutes later. Josh spoke with him. Wonderful wonderful wonderful. I could hear the relief in Josh's voice.

He called in an antibiotic for Josh, I drove to a 24-hour CVS at 5 am and the Pharmacist gets it ready in a matter of 45 seconds. Wonderful wonderful wonderful!

So now we just have to worry about Josh getting feeling better so he can take his BOARDS TOMORROW! This is a huge test. Dr. Rosenthal also wants to see Josh, sooooo... I'll keep you updated on that. Could you spare another extra prayer for Josh to feel OK for his boards tomorrow? If he reschedules it'll cost us another $1000!!!

Doting

Look at how this girl has changed. I found the first video the other day and promised myself I would post it. It is a treasure for me. It was maybe a couple of hours after Amelia was born. How can I not be excited to have another one after seeing this chubby baby girl!?

Fast forward 27 months. Amelia and Chloe are painting. Amelia yells, "Want to paint, Luke? There's a spot for you." "Yes, Conrad and Luke. And Katie-bug and Jamie." (Surprise! She still misses you guys!!!)

This girl melts our hearts. At bedtime we have to give her multiple kisses through the crib slots (because she's tented in). She'll give us a kiss, then move over a slot and say, "anuddah one," over and over until we're to the end of the slots.

I said too much

Thank you to Anonymous Brother Service.
House is getting cleaned on Monday by a cleaning service.
Brother service is really really really really spoiling me.
I regret saying too much.
Then again, I am thankful. Tara and her husb will be here to explore all the spots that need cleaned. But there won't be any. Phew.

lazy days...me rambling

Wow I have been so lazy lately. August + Pregnant = lazy. My house gets cleaned in the morning (sometimes, ok not my house, maybe one of the rooms) and by lunchtime it's a mess. Poor Josh never gets to see a clean house.

Josh is studying like crazy! It's wonderful, actually, I love it. He is so determined and has a second-wind about him. I am even more impressed because MAN I have been lazy around here, it's got to be frustrating for him to see me sleeping in, taking a nap or 2 everyday, coming home to a messy house.

It's frustrating for me, but I know that I can't beat myself up about it, hopefully it's just a phase. I think it is. I really hope it is. Maybe the creepy weird 17 week floating fetus has something to do with it. I have started to feel the baby moving. We find out what it is next Wednesday. :)

Josh takes boards on Monday. So we have less than a week of his studying. Hopefully not 1 more day of my slackerness.

We are once again the beneficiaries of something awesome. Anonymous person (the same one that sent us to Branson!) has given us a gift certificate to use at a really nice hotel here in Kansas City with a gift certificate to an awesome Steak House. We will go on Tuesday.

I think it's going to be how we celebrate our 7-year anniversary (which isn't until Dec. 16th, but Josh will be gone on a rotation)... in addition to Josh finally taking his Step 2 Boards and being done with that!!!

We have been blessed beyond need. Spoiled actually, really spoiled!!! A special shout out and thanks in advance to Tara!!! I love you! Tara and her husb are going to play Mom and Dad while we are gone. We really adore them.

That's what's going on around here. What's happening in your neck of the woods?

Dagg Park

Yesterday was Park Day at Dagg Park but we didn't go. I really wanted to... but didn't have it in me yesterday. So we went today and there was only a handful of people there, it was awesome. It's usually cROWdeD.
The swimming pool opens at noon, so until noon we played in some fountains.
Conrad got a kick out of hitting the water.

Amelia was more interested in Conrad's shoes and my chapstick.

Once the pool opened for business my kids enjoyed themselves. Amelia was pretty comfortable in the water. Conrad was paying attention to the decorations on the bottom of the pool (a crab, lobster, fish, etc.). He cracks me up sometimes, the things he focuses on.

Watching the people. They did that a lot, too. I can't blame them, there are some interesting folks here in Kansas City. Just kidding, the people there were all quite normal, but sometimes I wonder if my kids staring makes people uncomfortable!

I love my little kids. Next summer will be crazier so I'm really enjoying the calm now.

Insert clever post title here

I just wanted to document what has been happening around here.

Josh is, of course, finished with radiation treatments. He has pain (like I said before). Whenever I ask him how he's feeling he says "fine," but his body language says different. He doesn't complain. He has side-effects. Thereyago. But what's really weighing him down lately is his choice of specialty. He's mentioned just doing Family Medicine (which he really doesn't want to do) and moving back to Utah and hopefully getting a residency there. I don't know what to tell him. Except that we need to pray more.

I am 16 weeks pregnant. I think I have felt the baby move!!! I have a Dr. appt. tomorrow. And then I can schedule an ultrasound in 2 weeks to find out what the baby is!! I guess they like to do them at 18 weeks. I quit baby-sitting. I just couldn't keep up. I also felt like I was being a horrible mom to my own kids because I was in survival mode, rather than mothering mode. Conrad got away with way too much. Too much TV and not enough Real World stimulation, he has been acting like he has ADD. He wouldn't listen to me, it was so frustrating.

Anyway I haven't been as sleepy, I can get by on 8 hours now! I'm not as picky about what I eat. Acne is bad. Weight gain: 0 (though I gained almost 10 lbs right before I got pregnant). I get a headache about every other day. I can pretty much plan on needing a Tylenol on a day where I am outside in the sun and heat.

I got sustained on Sunday to be the Secretary in Young Womens. I am so excited. I've never worked in Young Womens before. I honestly don't know what I'm supposed to do!!! But I am thrilled that I will get to be the fun is in the ward!!!! No offense, primary and relief society!!!

I got a phone call from our city office warning about the extreme heat advisory for the entire week. It is going to feel like 105-110 until Sunday. Cooling Centers are open to people needing shelter. It is almost like winter when it gets this hot. You just don't go outside!

Conrad turns 4 in a month! He is potty-trained 100% during the day, but his pull-ups have been wet every morning. He is starting to behave like his normal old delightful self. He'll cooperate, he'll apologize when asked to, and he's getting better at entertaining himself. He can even identify letters! It surprises me how many he knows.

I am getting better about having Family Home Evening. This last month's Ensign sparked my ambition to be better about it. FHE before 2 weeks ago was this: ___________. We actually now have a song, prayer, lesson and treat! The kids love it, too!! It is wonderful to know you are doing something right for your children. Conrad is so curious, he really is picking up on Bible Stories (thanks to a Bible Stories for Children book). He just came to me and said that Goliath was his boss. Ok, I guess!

Amelia is catching up in size with Conrad. Someone asked me if they were twins. Another person said, "Wow, you had them close, didn't you?" It is kind of liberating for me! Conrad wears a shoe size 9, almost 10. And Amelia's feet are about 7 1/2. When I had them measured at the shoe store they recommended buying her an 8 or a 9, so I bought her a 9! I am so thankful for hand-me-down clothes that we got at Christmas. Lea (my sis in law) gave me huge bagfuls of clothes, and Amelia has flown through the shoes!!! Amelia can pretty much communicate anything now. When I tell her it's time for bed she cries, "I don't like it." Kind of funny.

Need I mention that I am homesick? I soo crave Utah right now. The mountains!!! The cool evenings!!! The camraderie!!!!!!!! I would love to go pick a cherry tree, or a raspberry bush, and pretty soon, it will be apples!!! Apples!!! Fresh apples off the tree.... canning the applesauce... (I saw a beginning canning kit at Sam's Club and almost bought it!!!...)... canning the SALSA!!! Ooh la la. I am getting too excited. Of course I can only remember the good stuff about Utah. Ok, enough of my soap box.

Tudo Feito!!!

Portugese: All Done!!!

We all accompanied Josh to his last radiation treatment. I had to sneak this picture! I really didn't want Josh annoyed that I brought the camera, so I discreetly took this picture.
While Josh got his hide tanned the kids and I hung out watching Regis and Kelly Lee.

Surprise! Josh was totally fine that I brought the camera! I love this picture. Josh is so hot. Amelia was a little unsure about the nurse that was trying to get them to smile. And Conrad was just ticked off that someone said, "Hey Batman!" He is so moody sometimes!!!

I thought it was cool Josh got to park in a special place everytime he went and had radiation treatments. So he humored me with this picture. THANKS JOSH!!! You're the man.

What a stud. I have complained more than he has. (what's new, though?) We are thrilled to have that done and taken care of. Yesterday Josh found out his September rotation is all settled (and we were worried that he wouldn't have a rotation for September, due to our circumstances), so we are thrilled. September he'll be in Wichita (4 hours away), October in Oklahoma, and November right here in Kansas City. Life is wonderful. Congratulations Josh!

Last week of Radiation Treatments!

I may have led you all astray and informed you that Josh had 8 treatments left. He actually just has 5 (now 4). Thank goodness. He has pain. That is all I'm going to say, Josh is not an open book like me.

Grandma Woodbury: thank you so much for the Aloe Vera HUGE plant. Josh uses it. Conrad and I used some, too, the other day after swimming. It is very sturdy! Have a happy happy birthday on Wednesday, and a wonderful swimming party!!! I really really wish we could be there!!!

Open book:

Conrad thinks the baby is a boy. He wants to name him Fred. If it is a girl he likes the name Catty Girl. My grandpa's name is Fred (and my Uncle's!), so I mean, we could do that. We would like to keep with tradition and do another family name. I don't think we have any catty girl's in my family.

I think we'll find out what this baby is. It's been stressing me out, and I feel a lot better with that decision.
15 weeks along. Does that baby floating over there weird anybody out???