I will survive...

I made it through the surgery. I write this while I'm on heavy doses of percocet, so please excuse the mistakes that I'm sure will be abundant. My surgery started around 2:00 yesterday, and we made it home around 7 or so. I actually fee great. Both my side (from the fat transplant) and eye hurt, but are certainly manageable. The biggest problem was that sometime during the surgery something got into my left eye which is causing a significant amount of pain. Apparently they can't tape the non-operated eye closed during this surgery because they need to compare my eyes in a natural state for the fat fill. About 5 minutes into waking in recovery I noticed the stinging which got significantly worse as time passed. When I was pregnant with Claire I got herpes in my cornea along with blisters that would pop on the surface of the cornea. This pain was even worse than the herpes which is suppose to be the worst pain you can experience.

They gave me two doses of morphine and it made no difference. Taylor and my mom got the job of irrigating my eye for what seemed like an hour while nurses tried to reach my doctor who was still in surgery. We were a little worried about the fact that the pain wouldn't go away as it is my only seeing eye. Taylor's grandparents live about three blocks from the surgical center, so they stopped by. Grandpa came into the recover to assist in a blessing, though he had to wait several minutes. From the moment he sat down I started feeling progressively better. They gave me a blessing, and the pain lessened quite a bit. I'm so grateful for the priesthood and the power that it has. I'm also grateful for Grandpa, it certainly seems his prayers have a lot of persuasion power.

So, the pain in my seeing eye is subsiding and only comes in waves now. I did pretty well during the night, and now I'm just happily recovering and watching the Olympics---my favorite!

Lots to say

This may be a long post as I have a lot to catch up on. Well, long if the kids stay asleep. Scratch that, Claire is not sleeping yet, so if she goes to sleep we'll get it in.

We've had a fun week with lots of visitors and visiting. We spent the 24th-26th in Salt Lake. After dinner on Thursday Claire was chasing birds in her usual fashion when Taylor and I noticed that one was injured (it flew right into a wall). We told Claire that it was hurt and that she shouldn't chase it. About twenty minutes later we were in the car and Claire said, "I have an idea! Mommy, does birdies wear Ban-Baids?" The sweet little girl had spent the whole ride home thinking of how she could help the hurt bird. We told her that the bird's mom would get him a bandaid and take care of him. What a thoughtful little thing!

We got to go to the Osmond/MoTab concert Thursday evening with Kerry Lynn, Whitney, Dan, and Meg. We all got split up, but had a nice time. We then went to Lehi and had ice cream and adult conversation with Dan, Meg, Suzy, and Dakotah.

On Friday we went to have my pre-op appointments in Provo. Things are looking good, and my inflammation has settled a lot. We're still planning on the 12th. The surgery has to be paid for this week. As of last week we had planned to put it on a credit card, but we are very humbled to have had a number of family members contribute to our plight. Big thanks to the efforts of my mother-in-law who took the initiative to arrange for all of the fund raising, she was able to gather enough to pay for this surgery and for the new prosthetic. The amount we owed was staggering and overwhelming to our little family. We are so grateful for the generosity of others. This gift has given us an even bigger desire to someday be in the position where we can help others. In the meantime we will just have to keep offering ourselves and the meager dinners that I enjoy bringing to those in our ward who need them.

Suzy came up to spend Sunday and Monday with us, and she was met here by Jake and Britt and my parents who were on their way home from Yellowstone. We had dinner (I only neglected to add the two main ingredients), and I saved myself by presenting a wonderful frozen strawberry dessert. Suzy and my mom stayed the night, and we had a good time Monday just hanging out, playing the Wii, and wading in a tiny river in the canyon.

Of course both of my children are sick. They do this whenever I'm stressed (we're the only people planning the ward party Friday) or whenever I'm in the hospital (I'm sure this is just the beginning of ear infections or pneumonia due to settle in the day of my surgery). Kyle had his 9-month checkup today, so that was convenient that they were actually sick before the appointment. We got him some medicine, but Claire spits hers out (she's never done that). Kyle is a little over 20 pounds. He's right above the 50th percentile in both length and height. Best of all his little head has stopped growing at such a rapid rate and is not longer huge and off the charts. This is a big relief to us.

So that's our update for now. I've posted a few new pages in my scrapbook, so check that out on the link at the top of the page.

Little Hints

Today I was astounded when I bought contacts at Standard Optical. They were HALF THE PRICE that I had been paying for the last 7 years! I'm certainly going to make sure to shop around more things. Oh, the money I've spent needlessly.

I also learned a little thing about fonts. I love fonts. I love them so much that I may let them slow my computer down just so that I can use more of them. Well, I learned that you don't have to install fonts to use them. Just keep the font file in a folder, and when you want to use one, simply open up the file that shows you the font. As long as that window is open (minimized doesn't work here), then the font will appear in your list and you can use it. Yeah! I just made a little list of all the fonts I like with an example of them, and I don't have to worry about slowing my computer down. There are some cool dingbats out there that I'm excited to use.

Prayers

Yesterday after church Claire had quite the story to tell about nursery. It went something like this:
"Mom! Today a boy was eating a teddy bear, and he throwed up all over his snack. He said, 'I want my mommy!' And we all had to go in another room, and they closed the door with the throw up." She then apparently remarked to a leader, "I throwed up yesterday," so you can bet they were thrilled with us for sending a sick child to nursery. We had to explain that "yesterday" to Claire means any day previous to this one. (She last threw up in March.)

Last night as she was saying her prayers she asked Heavenly Father to help the boy who threw up to feel better---twice. What a sweet little girl!

One of the nursery leaders commented that Claire is the sweetest little girl she's ever seen. They've told us a number of times that she's the best baby in there. We're so glad to have a little girl with such a sensitive heart.

Oh the pageants!

Last night was the final night of the Miss Utah pageant. I only made it to one night this year as we live so far away and Kyle is still so unwilling to drink from a bottle. We had our traditional big dinner with family and friends at Charlie Chow's and had great seats at Capitol Theater. My parents and Suzy and I sat in the past queen section with Natalie Johnson, Amy Davis, Julia Bachison, Katie Millar (who is due in six weeks), and a couple more queens who are even more ancient history than I am!

The evening gowns were quite nice, something that has sometimes been lacking lately. The show was a little more laid back, and I liked that, although I know a lot of people would disagree. I think though it is nice to have a big flashy show, it's so much better to put the money into scholarships and Miss America preparation and wardrobe. Here's the winner, Miss Sanpete County (I'm assuming this is a first for them): Kayla Barclay.

She's a pianist, so I always like that. She had sleeves and a one-piece swimsuit. I like both of those things too. I'm excited to see more of her, and to see how she looks by Miss America. I'm very interested in seeing her resume as it seems she captivated the judges from the beginning winning both a swimsuit and evening wear preliminary. She's just 18 and from Manti (not that that's bad, 20 and from Lehi isn't much better!).

In other pageant news. Thanks to Kerry Lynn who called to remind me that the Miss Universe pageant was on. I turned the TV on just in time to see Miss USA fall for the second year in a row. In case you missed it or want to see it again (and again and again), here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vJURP0XuQ0

(And by the way, I fell down the stairs in a pageant, so I have every right to post that.)

More eye drama

We had some interesting things happen with my previous surgeon. On three separate occasions he has promised to take care of us should I need surgery. He told us it would be fine to switch our insurance and he'd take care of it. Well, as I wrote a couple weeks ago we scheduled surgery with him, and though he did give us a discount on his fee it was still way too much. My current insurance won't cover either of my next two surgeries, so that's a lot of money for us in our school situation. I got a second opinion from a guy in Provo who came highly recommended and will do the surgery for almost 50% less. We haven't loved our experiences with our last doctor, so after a lot of thought and prayer we've decided to switch surgeons. Although I'm nervous about changing and have absolutely loved every other experience at the Moran Eye Center, I just really want this all to be over and to look normal again. We will also be working with a new ocularist (prosthetic eye maker), and I'm more than excited about that.

So I will be getting the same surgery that was planned with an additional process where they will remove fat from my side and transplant it into my eye socket (stop your emails now, all of you who are willing to donate your own fat, I get first dibs on fat removal! Though I am going to suggest that it be removed from my pregnancy-induced slight second chin, but I doubt that will happen). We have schedule surgery for August 12. I'll be down for at least five days. I am thrilled about the timing as most of you know what an Olympics freak I am, I'll watch it guilt-free 24/7 (except for when the pain meds knock me out). In October I'll have my upper and lower lids done, and we should be seeing some significant improvement. Hopefully.

So that's the plan for now. If I feel particularly adventurous I may even post a picture of myself post-surgery. Now we just need to win the lottery in the next 6 weeks...

If nothing else, we are entertained

The other day I was vacuuming, and Claire came into the room running and screaming in that high-pitched voice all little girls (and some little boys) can conjure, "What is the heck of that?" She yelled it over and over like it was one work, "WhatIsTheHeckOfThat?!" I guess it's her trial version of "what in the heck is that?" She's never been a fan of the vacuum.

Suzy (bless her heart) has taught my darling daughter to say, "Son of a B." However I have forbidden that kind of language. Suzy tried to get her to say it to me the other day and she whispered to her, "I can't say that," glancing in my direction. Claire let Suz know that we say "Son a of gun." And no, that's not a structure error on my part, Claire has reversed the 'a' and 'of' all on her own. She will also tell you it's okay to say "shoot," but you must trade out "stupid" for "silly."

We also have a problem with hair pulling. Whatever we do we cannot get Kyle to stop pulling Claire's hair. If she's on the ground or in their side-by-side stroller, he's constantly reaching for her hair. She screams, and I don't blame her. Those tiny slobbery baby hands can sure grip. A couple nights ago she had had enough when he snuck up behind her on the floor and gave a good yank. She screamed, turned around, thought for a while, and gave him a good two-hand shove! He toppled over and screamed. Taylor had to take her to her room and talk about being nice to Kyle, but we couldn't be too strict as he has had it coming for quite a while. You can bet we giggled later that night over her first real show of a negative emotion toward Kyle.

We will take ANY suggestions that anyone has on hair pulling. We cannot get him to stop.

Sunscreen

Our ward has a playgroup every Tuesday at 11:30 at various parks. Our numbers are dwindling since it's gotten hotter, but I'm willing to brave the heat for adult conversation---even if it's just with one other like-minded mother. Today was ridiculously hot and the other family bailed in about 20 minutes. Claire was not about to leave a park that quickly and soon joined up with another group of little people while Kyle and I lounged in the sun. She started to look quite flushed and sweaty, so I gave in to my indulgences, dug through the car for $2 in quarters and got us a medium snowcone (the stand was conveniently located at the front of the park). I let Claire pick the flavor and she settled on pink cotton candy. We sat in the grass next to 4 macaws and a number of monkeys and ate our deliciously big snowcone out of a purple flower cup. Kyle even had some bites. It was an ideal afternoon. Even better they were all tuckered out and should have good naps.

Now to the title of the blog: sunscreen. Before they play with the other kids I always slather them up with sunscreen. I was just cuddling with Kyle before his nap and could smell the sunscreen on him. Isn't that the best smell? Honestly, when do you wear sunscreen and not have fun? (Okay, so I've never had a landscaping job, or really done any outdoor work at all, but hang with me.) Sunscreen reminds me of days at the pool, 7 Peaks, and Lagoon. I remember girls camp, 4-wheeling, and other long summer days. And now I get all of those memories combined with the love I feel for my little family all rolled into one when I smell sunscreen on them. There simply is no better smell.

Boys vs Girls

Maybe it's just a difference in personality, but we sure have noticed a difference at Kyle and Claire, even in the early stages of life.

This is how Claire learned to crawl and walk: Claire was almost nine months old by the time she decided to try to crawl. Even once she learned how to it scared her and she literally would cry the whole time she was crawling. It was the same thing with walking. She just hated walking between two people by herself, she cried the whole time. If she was standing and holding onto something she would hold on for dear life and never let go. I still remember how my thumbs and fingers would ache from her holding on. When she was 14 months old she just stood up one day and started walking. That was that. No trial and error; she waited until she could do it. Claire is confident, calculated, and careful.

This is Kyle: At 6 1/2 months I went upstairs to grab some clothes for Kyle. I could hear him squealing with delight and hurried down the stairs to see him up on his hands and feet, rocking and laughing. The next day he learned to dive forward on his chest, get back up, and dive again. Even though he can crawl in the normal way, he still resorts to his dive/scoot. Then before he was even 8 months old he decided he can crawl up onto things (stairs, suitcase, large toys). And even worse he's decided that he can stand up and hold onto the couch, Claire's couch, the stairs, the exersaucer, the TV stand, and anything else he can crawl to. This would be fine except for the fact that once he's up he lets go and crashes. Sometimes he'll even just start to walk and let go. I spend most of my day chasing him and catching him at the last second. Why would a seven-month-old think that walking is the next step? Kyle is daring, dangerous, and determined.

So maybe it's a gender thing or a personality thing, but we sure like how different they are. Kyle certainly is a care-free little guy, where Claire thinks through everything before making a choice. It's fun to see so many great qualities developing in these little people.

Silent Night

Claire goes through a bedtime routine with her dolls during which they "request" songs. One of the dolls's favorites is Silent Night and here are the words:

Silent night, ho holy night
All it's gone, all it's bite
Round yon bird in mother in child
Holy in handsome tender so mild
sleep in heavenly peace
sleep in heavenly peace

She also sings I Need Thee Every Hour:

I need V every hour
in joy, in face
I come to V