Gall Bladder Doom

Most of you have heard of my bad luck--I had to have my gall bladder removed on Friday. That was my first official surgery (besides the c-section) and I was really scared. Next thing ya know it was over-or so I thought. They were able to remove the gall bladder, but there was still a stone stuck in there so they had to call in an endoscopy specialist (yes, they shove some tube down your throat and do all sorts of fun things with it) to take care of that. My first surgery was about 8am. The endoscopy wasn't until about 4:30pm. The wait in between was torture. No food, no drinks, no ice, no nothing. GAH. And a lot of pain! You can see it on my face below:This is my effort to try to smile. At this point I was happy bc the endoscopy doctor finally showed up and they were about to knock me out again. And I knew I could have some water when it was over. Hooray! You can see the "water joy" on my face below:
Then the doctor goes over the risks associated with this procedure and that was a bit scary! Apparently you can get pancreatitis and that is basically life-threatening. Awesome. Let's get started (Not)! The good news is that apparently I had the best doctor in the nation for this type of thing. Anyways, they started prepping me for it and this pathetic picture really captures how I was feeling:(if you look closely in the above picture, you can see my busted up lip from them inserting that breathing tube in my mouth during surgery. fun!) Wow, these are really great shots of me--I should put these into a model search! :)
They had to keep me overnight (which was unexpected, it is supposed to be a same day release). Luckily my mom was able to come up to help me (we can thank her for the lovely pics), and Jase was able to stay at my mother-in-law's house. Later, they let me eat some "liquid only foods" such as jello, popsicles, chicken broth, and kool-aid tasting "nutritional" supplements. UGH. I thought that was strange (so sugary!). Well anyways, I hope all is well now and I can focus on healing and feeling better. If any of you have had gall stones, you know how horrid the pain is. I do not wish it upon anyone! They say that pregnancy usually is the catalyst. I started having what I thought were back spasms a few weeks after the baby was born. I'd have those "attacks" off and on, and they started to get worse. When the last one left me rolling around on the floor gasping for air, I went to see a doctor. That is how I found out what my real problem was. It's a good thing I did, too, bc I had an obstruction they didn't know about, which would have led to some serious problems that they were able to "catch" during my recent stay. I hope I never have to go back! I already feel somewhat better than I did yesterday, but I'll be taking it easy for sure. And I have 4 new scars on my stomach. Cool story to tell, eh?

Jase's 4 Month Stats

Weight - 17.22 lbs, 92nd percentile

Height - 26.18", 91st percentile

Head - 17.1", 83rd percentile

I guess his head is trailing behind his body, percentile-wise! We think he hates "tummy time" bc his head is bigger than average to hold up! LOL. But seriously, I think his head is just perfect. A perfect little boy in the cutest package I've ever seen. That's Jasey Jones! Everybody wants one! *Wink wink*

Some of his new accomplishments: Chewing on hands at all times and will get mad at you if you block his hand action, googling, cooing, babytalkin', giggles, reaching out to grab toys and putting them straight into his mouth, kicking his feet like crazy, splashing inadvertently in the baby tub, trying to get used to being away from mom (even for small amounts of time--what can I say? he's a momma's boy!), can almost hold binky in his mouth by himself now, and my favorite one--peeing in his own face (wow, nice talent) when you take too long to change his diaper.

Scary thought: Did you know there was a government recall on the HIB vaccine? Scary! They told me that at the ped's office and I was like, "wonderful." So he didn't get that shot...but he got the others. However, that is not helping my worrying with the whole "vaccinate your kids" thing. Hmm.

Jase and "the Face"

What a funny expression!Heh. Heh. The mean mommy was taking pictures of him while he was crying. His face reminds me of a grumpy little frog. He doesn't really like "tummy time" very much. So how will this child ever learn to crawl? (maybe we can just skip that part altogether and go straight to walking?)

I put a little gel in his hair and gave him some styled curls...it was so cute. But it didn't last too long. He started rubbing his head around all over the blankets and it was destroyed after that!

Choco-Chip Pumpkin Muffins

1 box devil’s food cake mix (i used betty crocker triple chocolate fudge cake mix)
1 can solid pack pumpkin (15 oz.)

Directions:
Mix the two ingredients together. Don't add anything else that may be mentioned on the box, such as eggs, oil, or water. The mixture will be very thick and you will be tempted to add in other things to make the batter smoother. DO NOT DO THIS AS IT WILL RUIN EVERYTHING! Place batter into muffin tins (or mini muffin tins) lined with paper, or sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake at 350 for about 17 min. Makes 12 regular muffins.

Amiee's Tip--these DO NOT rise at all, so you'll want to fill your muffin cups over the top.
1 Muffin=180 calories, 2.5g fat, 37 carbs, 2.5g, fiber, 2.5g protein
*I added half a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips. This will alter the calorie content a little bit.*

Nathan, Meredith, & Little Hibs

Nathan is my younger brother--in case you didn't know! His son is 4 weeks older than Jase. He's too cute! I like the pic of him sleeping in the backpack. Looks like they pooped him out!

Jasey's Very First Laugh!!!

This came out of no where! The most I ever could get him to do was a slow paused laugh-noise, like "huh...(long pause)...huh." Nothing too fancy. Well I was in the kitchen cleaning up and just talking to him like normal. I started clapping my hands (well, you'll see in the video) and this is how he responded. I couldn't get enough of it. Poor child, I kept doing it for as long as he'd keep laughing. I wanted to cry--it was the cutest thing I've ever HEARD in my life.

Healthier Finds

Ok, those who know me well, know that I am not really much of a health nut. Unfortunately, I have been cursed with tastebuds that crave naughty things like burgers, chocolate, sugar, breads...mmmm. However, lately I've been trying to make better choices and have tried a few new food ideas. Here are a couple of some SURPRISING good ones to try--

Butternut Squash Fries (this recipe is from www.hungrygirl.com which is a GREAT website)
all ya do is peel off the rind, toss the seeds, and cut it up into french fry shapes. spray with some PAM & bake at 435 for about 30 minutes. serve w/ ketchup. sooo yummy! i was shocked!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (got this recipe from a past client of mine. thanks Corene!)
mix one box of spice cake mix with a regular can of pure pumpkin (about 14 oz). don't use eggs or oil! it is hard to mix up, but worth the effort. toss in some semi sweet choc chips. drop onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes. they stay super moist and you will be amazed that there isn't any oil or butter in these. trust me on this! and they have lots of fiber! yay! p.s. i think these taste best once completely cooled and the choc chips have re-hardened

Carrie Underwood - "Alone"

I love Carrie, and I love how she rocks it out on this song. I am so into music, so I HAD to post this video just in case some of you love good music as much as I do. And I just WISH I can someday be as good as this! Y'all know I LOVE to sing! So in the meantime I'm just sitting here watching this and dreaming away! Maybe one day when I am 50!

Jase's Blessing Outfit

Well I know I didn't go too traditional with this (usually parents dress their babies in white, but you don't have to), but all the white outfits I could find were just cheesy AND expensive. I was running out of time quickly, so I'm lucky to have found this cute outfit for him. My favorite part is the seersucker pants! They are so darling on him. He was blessed last Sunday. We had lots of people over to the house afterwards for yummy foods and fun. All in all, it was a good day. Hope you enjoy the pictures. OH, and I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but Jase is now officially FOUR months old! Time flies, eh?

There's a gummy smile! (funny, I just realized that the blanket looks like little angel wings behind him)

Ha ha ha, this one is too funny!

Yep, he can hold his head up pretty good. I think he'll start rolling over soon. Actually, he did roll over once, but I don't think he meant to do it. He was trying to see a toy that I was holding over his head and just went right over onto his back. Is that how it starts?

He looks so serene to me in this one. Cutie patootie.

It's Officially Ours

Previous owners have moved out, so I took some more pics . We're going to ask $1175/mo, so if you know anyone who's interested, please send them our way! We are going to clean it up a bit first and also remodel the bathroom.

What Good is a Fence?

...with the snowbanks this high? That's right, little Pippie & Goosie figured out they could just walk right over the snow (which is up to the fence) and leave the yard. Awesome. I went to call them back inside and they were no where to be found. I had to leave the baby on the couch and bundle up and start searching. I went into the forest service's yard and looked everyplace. Nothing. Then I called my neighbor Krista (lives behind me) to see if perhaps they were in her yard. Then a knock at the door. A little old lady was standing there with Goose. Hmph. They were walking out towards the beach and the dogs followed them. She said she tried to bring Pippie back, but he was too feisty! HA! (He's such a punk). She told me he was down the road a ways by the horses. Sure enough, I walked down the road and I could see his little tail poking up from the snow. He was barking like crazy at something. When he heard my voice, he came runnin' so fast! I think he realized that he was lost, and was happy that he was now found. Awww. I wanted to hug him and beat him at the same time. So now I get to go out and "dogsit" them everytime they need to do their business. Awesome fun for me. At least until this snow melts...which is a LONG time from now! *sigh*

ReubMAN of the House

1.How long have you been married? about 3 1/2 years
2.How long did you date? Too long! We met in 1998, and married in 2004. Best thing I've ever done!
3.Who eats more sweets? Unfortunately that is ME. I have the biggest sweet tooth. He's more of a real food kind-a guy.
4.Who said I love you first? Oh no! I really can't remember! I might have to consult the ol' journal for this one. It MIGHT have been me? I should ask Roob. Now I feel dumb that I don't remember!
5.How old is he? 32--He likes to remind me that I am about 3 months older than him. Dang it. But we're both closing in on 33...*sigh*
6.Who is taller? Him. We just had a big show down over how tall he was, though. I thought 5'8" and he was insulted! He says he's at least 5'9" or 5'10". ha ha ha. Well at least he is taller than me at any rate!
7.Who is smarter? Well Roob is REALLY good with vocab & writing, and solving ANY kind of man-problems...like electrical stuff, handy man stuff, car probs, etc. He is pretty smart to me! Oh, and he is a political genius--how could I forget that? I just think I am an average smartie.
8.Who can sing better? Ok I get to win this time! But he is pretty good himself.
9.Who does the laundry? Me, but usually with him reminding me to do it since I hate doing laundry. (And now that Jase is here, the laundry is NEVER ending.) Ugh.
10.Who pays the bills? I pay them all (usually they are all late, too) except the car payments (he pays those).
11.Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Well that depends on if you are laying in it or standing and looking at it. If you are laying in the bed, I am on the right side. I don't really care what side I sleep on, but I think he prefers to be closest to the bedroom door. That way he can grab the gun and blow up the bad guy to protect me. Aww.
12.Who mows the lawn? He does. The entire acre. Poor guy. That is why I do the laundry! Heh.
13.Who cooks dinner? I do. Though he has a really good fajita recipe that I should have him cook again sometime.
14.Who drives? If we are both in the car, it's definitely Reuben. It is not worth it or me to drive bc it makes him crazy. He is a total backseat driver! I'd rather let him drive than listen to "turn here, speed up, pass this guy, you could have gone by now, stop, etc." every 5 seconds. Ha ha ha! In fact, the one and only time I completely lost it (and screamed at him) was when he did that to me. So he drives now. It's a great trade off. He's happy, and I'm not yelling at him. Ha!!!
15.Who is more stubborn? Reuben!! I will give on most anything.
16.Who kissed who first? He asked me if he could on a plane ride back from a trip to Louisiana. It was really cute, but embarrassing since we were with tons of friends! So it was the quickest little peck in the world! Ha!
17.Who asked who out? Well we hung out all the time as friends for a while...but when I was clueless that he liked me more than a friend, he pretty much had to S-P-E-L-L it out for me. That he liked me and wanted to "date" me officially.
18.Who proposed? He did. The first time we were in McDonalds (I think), but it was sort of a joke. The REAL time was while I was at work in front of everyone! The elevator doors opened up and he was down on his knee with balloons and a stuffed raccoon in tote! Very cute. And I was VERY surprised!
19.Who has more siblings? He does--10 siblings! WOW. But it sure makes family get togethers a lot of fun!

I've Been Tagged

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the game the player tags 5 people, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Where were you 10 years ago: Ok that is Feb 1998, so I was home from my mission to Chicago for about one month and a couple of weeks, still trying to adjust to not having someone right by my side 24/7. But it wasn't hard to adjust to turning on the radio and watching as many movies as I could! Ha ha ha! I also think I had started back up at BYU, and that semester I was living with my mom who had moved out here during my mission. It wa

Five things on my to-do list today: 1. Figure out why the crud there is a claim on my homeowner's insurance. Not cool since we did not make any claims!!! 2. Do some laundry 3. Make an appt to get my haircut before I freak out 4. Go to post office and finally mail off some overdue thank you cards 5. Fax some paperwork over to Wachovia Bank (wow, what a pretty boring day)

Five snacks I enjoy: 1. Dairy Queen Chocolate Extreme Blizzard (totally bad for you but OMG, so good! 2. Fuji apples 3. Popcorn, pop secret's homestyle kind 4. Nuts 5. Raisinettes

What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire: 1. Pay off my mortgage & other debts for sure! 2. Go on an awesome vacation 3. Probably pay cash for a bigger car in which I could actually sit a normal distance from the steering wheel instead of having to sit so close to it like I do now to accommodate the baby's carseat in the back! 4. I'd invest a lot of the money into land and/or properties 5. I'd send some money to family that needed help.

Four of my bad habits: 1. Procrastination 2. I'm always 10 minutes late. Always. 3. Biting my fingernails 4. Sometimes I prostitute myself out on the weekends. (j/k!)

Five jobs that I have had: 1. Take Out person at Chinese Restaurant 2. Spanish Teacher at MTC 3. Waitress 4. Restaurant Manager 5. Realtor

Five things people don't know about me: This is a toughie. 1. Half of my front tooth is fake 2. I have a TON of gray hair 3. I have an addiction to Downy 4. I constantly check the mirror to make sure I don't have food in my teeth when I'm getting out of the car 5. I sing at the top of my lungs in the car to CDs. Like my own personal karaoke bar!

Ok, I am going to TAG these people: KIKI, TORI, WENDY, DANA, KANION, BECKY, JAMIE

Sittin' on Top of the World

Ha! I love this picture bc he looks so teeny in this big ol' high chair! This is a present from my aunts, and we had it sitting in the box bc he is too young to eat solids foods just yet. So Roob had the idea to whip it out and try using it for him now bc he likes to sit straight up. So far we are LOVING it. It can recline, has different height adjustments, and has wheels so you can roll it around where ever you are. It also has an awesome harness in it so he won't slide out of the chair. When I prop him up on the sofa, he tends to wriggle down on his back in a matter of seconds. This chair ROCKS. Plus it matches my living room, so that is a bonus! And, the tray actually hooks on the back of the chair when you are not using it. Love it!

I think he looks like he's about to go skydiving or something with this harness on! (this is the highchair, not the carseat)

My Little Hand-y Man

I am finally figuring out that if I upload videos to Photobucket first and paste in the html code, it is WAY faster than just trying to upload them with Blogger only. Just an FYI for you new bloggers out there!

Ok, this is a short video of Jase discovering his little hands (hope grandpa enjoys this since he hasn't seen him since November). It's so cute! And I am in love with his fancy orange vest from Baby Gap. It is a tad big on him, but he doesn't seem to mind.

House For Rent

Well we have finally done it! (and I am scared out of my mind!) We found a home to purchase as an investment property. It's 5 bedrooms (3 up, 2 down), 2 baths, and has a mother-in-law apartment with its own separate entrance. It's on the northeast side of Ogden, and we're looking to rent it for about $975/mo. We don't allow smoking. It has 2 covered parking spaces, and extra "RV" parking on the side (so you can park about 4 cars on your property). The upstairs has been remodeled (the kitchen is so cute!), has refinished old hardwood floors, some new carpet, and a newly remodeled bathroom. Please send anyone you know who might be interested our way! Thanks for your help! It will be ready to rent by March 2008.

It's "Snow" Joke

Woo hoo! Look at the snow! This is my FRONT YARD, people! I have lived here since 1994, and I have NEVER seen this much snowfall! I tried to take a bunch of pictures to show you some perspective of how deep it really is out here. Just today we got about 2 more feet! Funny how little Goose almost blends right into the snow "wall." Here's Gator and I just to the east of my house. That's our 5th wheel on the left, and our buried house on the right. Crazy!
Here I am taking a small rest. I shoveled off the porch and it took me almost 2 hours! Ugh! I wanted to die. The snow was soooo deep. As you can see, the snow level is EVEN with the porch, so instead of being able to just push it off, I had to actually lift the snow and hurl it over the railing. Made for some good exercise, though.
Reuben has spent HOURS every snowstorm (which we've had quite a few of) snowblowing the driveway, stairs, walking paths for the dogs, etc. He has also had to dig out our basement windows, which have been BURIED from snow sliding down our roof. Just today he accidentally snowblowed over Gator's doggy dish, which temporarily broke the snowblower and forced him to go into town to buy new bolts or something. He's had to do that more than once these last few weeks, since our snowblower is on its last leg. Just buy a new one, you say? Ha! You can't find a snowblower ANYWHERE in town! They are all SOLD OUT. This snow is insane!
Here's Roob again standing in front of an impressive mound of snow in our driveway. Wowzers!

Shoveler on the Roof

I wonder what Reuben is standing on top of ??? Wait for it...Holy moly, it's our RV Trailer!!! Ha! He had to get up there and shovel off the snow b/c the roof was starting to cave in! OH NO! While shoveling he broke two of the vent covers, and had to go buy 2 new ones. A couple days later, a new snowstorm just replaced all the snow he shoveled off of there. Gah! It never ends!

We are starting to worry about our "RV parking" behind our garage. The weight of the snow is starting to take its toll on the 2 trusses holding up the roof. If you look closely, you can see that the rain gutter has already started to give way...hmmm. I better keep the dogs out of there. You never know when it may come crashing down. We just hope it doesn't take the entire garage with it! Even that roof is bearing a lot of snow weight. *sigh* And the snow just keeps a-comin'!

I'm Not Moosin' Around

Yep, we had a momma moose and her baby hanging out in my back yard the other day! Too cool! There has been so much snow in the mountains that they are coming down into the valley to look for food. While they were here, they made themselves comfy under the shelter of our trees. They also enjoyed a couple "leafy" snacks.

Ok, these last 2 pics are kind of "foggy" b/c I took them from inside my house. They moved MUCH closer so I hurried and grabbed the camera again. The baby is on the left. CUTE!
Since our dogs were going ballistic, we had to call the forest service to come take care of the moose "problem." A whole bunch of them came with trucks, rifles, sleds, and a trailer. But don't worry, they didn't kill them--they just tranquilized them, put them on the sled, pulled them across an acre of land, and loaded them in the trailer. I believe they took them back into the mountains and released them. It was surreal!

More Jasey Face

I had a couple more pics that I wanted to post on here, since I know people like looking at those. In this one, he has the funniest expression on his face! I have no idea how to interpret it.I love this picture, because you can see his cute little chin! (normally, he has a big chubby double chin when he's sitting up, and you can't see his 1st chin's shape. heh heh)

Ok this one captures his CRAzzZy hair! Ha! Talk about a frizz out! But I love it!

I muted the colors in this picture a bit to give it that old timey look. I think he looks like a little train conductor. Is that what you call them?