Surgery

I am now Bionic Woman....or something along those lines. Last Thursday I had a Vagus Nerve Stimulator implanted in my body. The actual computer/battery part went below my left collar bone and a wire was threaded under my skin up to my neck where it was connected to my Vagus Nerve (which runs to the brain). Fun times. It hurts. I didn't think it would be so bad, but it is. I guess I can't complain too much since I did agree to have this done. I thought I would be back to work today, but decided to stay home (vs go to school without pain meds and yell at all of my students). The hardest part is not being able to pick up Brayden. He is sure playing this up too. He knows I can't be hard on him and he is being a PILL to say the least. Terrible two's hit hard this week. Glad he saved it for now- what a sweetheart. Anyway, back to the whole brain thing. My neuro will turn it on after Thanksgiving and we'll see how it works. I am excited for that part. Right now I just want to pull the whole thing out of my neck, but a little pain now is worth the possibility of awesomeness later. Wanna know how much this cost? Yeah you do! 30 Grand baby! The things I do to live a normal life. Glad we have decent insurance. But really, 30 grand for a little round disk and a wire? It's not like I could have used that money on say a new VAN or FOOD or something. Whatever. Seriously, what other word is there. I've been told my voice will go out and that I could feel some tingling when it goes off. My nerves are already irritated and my voice has been affected, so I'm guessing I will have those reactions. Before I end this I do have to thank everyone who has helped with my kids and feeding my family- especially Mike's mom (Terri), my sisters and bro in law (Mandi, Beth, and Chad) and Mikes sister and bro in law (Krista and John). Our ward has been awesome as well- feeding us and worrying endlessly and my carpool has been great picking up and dropping off the kids. I can't finish without mentioning my fabulous sub at school (Teri Angell) who has been working with my students in my absence. A lot of people are helping pick up the slack in my life and I appreciate it SO very much!

Halloween!!!

We had a great Halloween week. The kids had parties, we had a church party, my school had a dress-up day, Bray had a daycare dress-up day. The pics below will tell the story. Cute kids!! This was prep for the kids Primary Party (church party). Anna's pants that came w/ the outfit were too small, so I put these on her with shoes that were too big. It was good for us to figure all of that out so I could buy her some new things for the real event. Ty was Harry Potter. I just thought he looked so great. The glasses are awesome. Way too big and dang cute.
Bray went as Peter Pan for his daycare party. He's such a ham. Since he dresses up everyday this was just normal to him :)

FYI- Since Halloween fell on Sunday and the majority of Utah's occupants are Christian, we all celebrated on Saturday so that Sunday could be kept holy. SO, this was taken on Saturday before trick-or-treating. Anna was sporting her new pants and shoes.

Bray is just friggin cute. What else can I say?

And Ty in his Potter costume again.....

LOVE THEM!We went to our church Halloween party. The kids did a costume parade, we had a chili cook-off, and later did a trunk-or-treat (this is another Utah tradition where everyone comes to the church, line up the cars, and decorate the trunks. Kids go "trunk-to-trunk" getting candy).

After the church party, we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Mike was Death. When we got home, he stood outside handing out candy and scaring the crap out of everyone. He had a blast.

Brayden with the wand and wearing the Harry Potter glasses. Notice the Ladybug arm covers as well.

And here he is as Woody again. Let's just say that Brayden has been in heaven the last few days (even though the poor kid has had a very nasty cold).

AND FINALLY.......

This was dinner on Halloween night....the REAL Halloween night. I should get a "mom of the year" award for making these pumpkin shaped pancakes and letting my kids decorate them with Halloween candy. Oh yeah....that is stellar parenting right there.

GWA School Carnival

OH....MY....GOSH am I glad this is over! I signed up to be "room mom" for Anna's class and I feel like I have signed up for mom boot camp. The annual school carnival is so huge. It's not just a fun for all carnival, but the main fundraiser of the year. Every class does a basket to auction off, there is a silent auction, bake sale, kid rides, booths, a haunted house, food, prizes, and the list goes on. Before the carnival even began they sold $6000 in wristbands alone. So all the room moms were in charge of the booth, getting bake sale items, one basket, at least one silent auction item, entertainment, and then set-up and clean-up. It was a hassle trying to get all of my class parents to volunteer. The kids do LOVE going though and that's what it's all about, right? I was at the school for 7 hours that day, but we got it done and the kids were very cute. Ty's class singing the national anthem. He's in the back hiding behind someone.
All of the kindergartners reciting some poems and below is our booth. A duck pond.

SURPRISE!

I briefly wondered what you would think this post would be about with a title like that. Not to dissappoint you, but it most likely has nothing to do with what you think it might be. Sorry, no juicy gossip :) It's actually about a frog. Mike and I were watching tv one night and saw something move. We looked over to find a frog (or toad- I really don't know the difference) climbing our wall. Random. Mike tried to catch it and it hopped across the room landing in our shoe basket. It was so tiny and cute- both of our voices went to this high, baby talk sort of tone. We didn't name it or make it a little house but I'm sure if the kids had been awake all of the above would have occured. We did hold it a bit and then set it free into our wild, white trash backyard. Good luck little guy. Hope you survive.