Well, now that it's been about 6 months since our last update I should probably put some things up here. We've had a busy 6 months since moving into our new house in December. Lots of working on the house, updating furniture and stuff. My mom was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, had two surgeries that I went to Colorado for. And, both of my sisters graduated this spring (Mel from college, Mar from high school)!
We'll start with my mom being diagnosed with cancer. In January she called me and said she had found a lump in her neck a few months prior and had been having lots of tests done. Her doctors had decided she had salivary gland cancer...so at the beginning of February she had her first surgery. Of course I had to fly over to Colorado and be her personal nurse throughout this surgery and recovery :) The surgery took a few hours, but according to her surgeon everything went well and we were able to see her. I ended up staying with her in the hospital over night (ended up being 2 nights) and that first night following surgery was pretty rough. She was pretty out of it, in pain, nauseated. Needless to say neither of us got much sleep that night. Because she was so out of it I felt like I needed to pop up every time she moved just in case she was trying to get out of bed. The next day she seemed to do better as the day went on, transitioned to oral pain meds, got up to walk the halls, was able to keep food down, but the surgeons said her JP drain was still draining a little too much and we wouldn't be going home until the following day. The second night went a little more smoothly, we both got a little more sleep (as much as you can in a hospital I guess). She went home the next day and besides being a little more tired than normal she recovered quickly and was back to doing her normal stuff within a few days. Here is a picture of her 'battle wound' and of my dad taking her on a walk in the hospital.
The tissue removed during her surgery was sent off to pathology and everyone thought she was out of the woods. The day I was leaving the following week she received a call from her doctor about the pathology results...not the greatest news...it was actually thyroid cancer NOT salivary gland cancer. How this got missed before her first surgery we're still kind of confused about, but with this new diagnosis comes another surgery :( After a lot of debate on whether to take the whole thyroid or just half, it was decided to remove the whole thyroid gland. Towards the end of March I headed to Colorado again for surgery number two. This surgery took longer than the first, but again the surgeon came out and told my dad and I she did very well and we would be able to see her shortly. The anesthesiologist used a different anesthesia this time (due to needing to test some nerve function during surgery) and waking up for her went much more smoothly and quickly. I again stayed overnight in the hospital with her (2 nights again), and the first night was MUCH better! Her JP drain was, again, draining too much the next day so we got to stay over another night (not to mention there was a blizzard taking place outside and my dad couldn't even get to the hospital that day). Speaking of that snow storm, I'm pretty sure Denver ended up getting about 2 feet of snow in a 12-hour period...CRAZY!!! The roads cleared up the next morning and we were able to go home. Again, recovery at home went very well for my mom. The endocrinologist started my mom on Levothyroxine immediately after surgery and she's done great! Hasn't noticed any changes and her BOTH of her scars are healing very well. They have reccommended she have a radioactive iodine treatment in a couple of weeks (3rd week of June) just to be sure all cancer cells are taken care of. There isn't supposed to be any side effects and she can do it outpatient, so hopefully it will be quick and easy and this will all be behind us.
Now on to the house. We've finally finished pretty much everything on the inside of the house! We've been adding new pieces of furniture over the past few months and I think we're finally pleased with how things are looking.
The coffee table you see in this picture is one that Nate made :) We were having a heck of a time trying to find tables (sofa, coffee, and entryway) that we liked so Nate decided he would just make them himself. The sofa table isn't quite done yet...I'll post a picture of it as soon as it is. It's so nice to have a hubby that is so talented and smart! The tables turned out looking fabulous!
Our fireplace used to be just the painted wall surrounding it...but now it looks awesome thanks to my very talented hubby :) Before I left for my mom's second surgery we had the cabinet shop that did our cabinets throughout the rest of the house design and build a mantle to match the wood. That was installed the week before I left and while I was gone Nate put rock on the front surrounding the fireplace. The mantle didn't turn out exactly the way I was wanting it to (I expected the crown molding to be bigger I think, but it wouldn't work with the way the fireplace sits on a diagonal), but it definitely looks much better than it did before and it will have to do for now.
The entryway table you see in this picture is the other one that Nate made.
Now on to our fantastic yard : / Yea, it's not so fantastic. In March, when is started warming up a little, we noticed a portion of our front yard was sinking. We contacted the builder and he said that there was a good chance they hadn't buried the sewer lines, or something, before the ground became too cold and now the ground was thawing and settling. Nate dug up some of the sod and noticed that there was also a problem underneath our driveway...gravel was missing in about a 3x4 foot square area (NOTHING supporting the driveway, doesn't exactly seem like a good idea, right?). So, the builder said he would take care of it. A few weeks later he sent his excavators over to fix the problem. Nate and I watched them work and these guys didn't seem to know what they were doing. The yard looked just a terrible as it did before they came. I left a message for the builder saying the yard needed some more work, but haven't heard from him since. The yard is starting to slowly sink again and the grass is half dead and looks terrible. Nate and I have decided that the only way the yard is going to look descent is if the two of us fix it the right way. So, fun for us over the next couple of weeks :) These pictures are after the excavators supposedly fixed the problem.
Next is Zoey! Of course there needs to be an update on my baby :) She's a super sweet kitty and we love having her around. She is so entertaining! Here are a few pictures of her now that she's a whole 1 year old
So I buy her dry food in a large bag from Petsmart and then empty it into a bin in our pantry. After doing this the bag was just sitting on the kitchen floor waiting to be thrown away and Zoey decided to squeeze herself inside. HILARIOUS!!! The hole I cut in the bag wasn't even that big but she sucked it in and made her way in somehow. She would just hang out in the bag and lick the sides :)
At the beginning of May my parents came to Utah for Mel's college graduation. It was so fun to have them stay at our house because they hadn't seen it yet. Mel graduated with her Bachelor's degree in Exercise Physiology. She plans to apply to a couple of accelerated nursing programs that hopefully she'll start in 2011 sometime. I can't believe she's done with her Bachelor's already...I know it's been 4 years but man it went by fast! She graduated 4th in her class! I'm so proud of her :)
This is her boyfriend, Skye. I think everyone in the family is hoping she marries him ;) He's such a good guy for her and treats her really well. We all get along great with him and enjoy having him around.
At the end of May I flew over to Colorado for Mar's high school graduation. It happened to be over Memorial Day weekend so I stayed a little longer than just the weekend. Mel and Skye came over with me and my parents' friends Marty and Diane (also know as uncle Marty and aunt Diane...we pretty much grew up as if they were our aunt and uncle) were there as well. Poor Nate works for DISH network which doesn't give anyone time off even if they're willing to take unpaid time (don't even get me started!) so he wasn't able to go with us. Mar's graduation was outside on their football field...with no bleachers...I know you're thinking what kind of high school football field doesn't have bleachers? I guess they don't actually play their games there so no need for bleachers...anyways, we were told to bring our own chairs so we'd have something to sit on. Luckily it was a nice day becuase her graduation was longer than Mel's college graduation. They read the names so slowly it was rediculous! I ended up getting fried from sitting in the sun for so long.
The day after her graduation we went rock climbing...ahh! Mel's boyfriend, Skye, is way into rock climbing and he's super good at it. He's ended up getting Mel into it so she has her own harness and shoes. I decided I would like to try it so we went to an REI and rented me some climbing shoes and I just used her harness. Mar also wanted to try it out so we all got up Sunday morning and drove up Boulder canyon. Apparently it's a great canyon for climbing and it was incredibly beautiful!
These two pictures would be of ME rock climbing. I'm super afraid of heights so I was pretty much shaking the whole time but it was a great experience and an awesome work out :)
This next picture is Mar climbing
This one is of Mel climbing
This picture I took standing down on the road so you could get a better sense of how big the actual rock was that we climbed. Pretty cool, huh!?
