Hee Haws 2016

Better late than never to start blogging again, right? So, here I start...November.  9 months later.  I'm a little rusty.  Here's hoping I can remember how to write instead of Instagram in 20 words or less.

Lexi had a field trip to Hee Haws farm.  She is so lucky that she has most of her friends in her class again this year!

This boy in the orange shirt is Hudson.  Pretty sure Lexi is in love with him.  I personally, haven't met him.  :)

She LOVED the corn beach!  They could have spent all day right here.  (And we found little corn kernels all over in her clothes).

And they each got to choose their own pumpkin.  It was a pretty good challenge for little kids to find their perfect pumpkin.

And this slide...oh man.  She loved it.  I went down with her once and then she kept doing it over and over again on her own.  Getting so brave!

8 months post-op

Remember my 6 month appointment and how excited I was to go to the neurologist and get off of the medication I've been on?
Finally got into a neurologist and she informed me I should stay on it for the rest of my life.  Not what I wanted to hear.  She said if I choose to go off of it, I won't be able to drive for 6 months while my body adjusts to not having it.  I did tell her I've been super irritable and depressed (which are two major side effects of the meds) so she said we could switch me to a different one.  I'm a month into gradually switching to a different medication.  Still on a full dose of my old one and adding 25 mg a week of the new one.  It's going to be a long process.  :(
She also informed me that I should never have a bath, or go swimming, or climb a ladder or do anything risky ever again.  I could have a seizure at any moment.  (30% chance with medication, 70% without).  She kind of freaked me out.  We came home and had a talk with the girls about what to do if I do have a seizure.  They all said they'd call dad.  Wrong answer.  They are all now trained to roll me to my side and call 911.  And Maddie was taught how to hit the brakes in the car.  Then Lindsay said "What if it's just Lexi in the car?"  Ugg...this is hard.  (And now I wonder why on earth I wasn't told all of this at the hospital???)
I'm getting a second opinion next week.  If he agrees this is the best option for me, then that's fine, I'll do it.  I just find it odd that I've been told since my surgery that I could come off this medication at 6 months and now I'm told something completely different.  I haven't had any seizure activity since the tumor was removed and my EEG was totally fine.  Feeling a little down about it all.
I also finally got a primary care doctor (mine retired 2 years ago).  I went because I've been having knee pain for the past couple months.  Of course, my knee is fine.  I should be glad that nothing is wrong, but why does it hurt then?
And remember when I said no more doctors until May?
Dentist next week.
New neurologist next week.
Medical Oncologist in two weeks.
Old neurologist in March.
Bummer.
AND I have to pay co-pays again.
Bummer.

Macie, my summer birthday.

 School skate night is always a fun time...all right, it's not always a fun time.  I decided this trip I was going to skate and that did make it a little bit more fun.  It was an adventure dodging kids.  (I'm sure the neurologist would have frowned upon this activity, but I can't live in a bubble for the rest of my life).  Macie skated holding my hand the entire night and the next day my legs were fine, but my arm was sore from being yanked on so long.

 It was also Macie's half birthday.  She asked for McDonald's.  We got to the school super early, but Lexi and I waited to eat.  When we pulled out the food, they had forgot mine.  Sad day.  At least they had hers!

And we are so grateful this year to have Ari as a friend!  She's been so nice and Macie really needed a friend this year.

Family pictures!

We have always done family pictures outside and froze our bums off.  This year I decided to use a studio and it was great!  They were so good with Lexi!  I'm so happy with how they turned out.  

NYE 2015

The Perkins family stayed through New Year's this year.  They threw us a fabulous party.  (Grandma and Grandpa made it until 10).  Games and food make any night fun!

Lexi Jean, the Sunbeam Queen

She's still been obsessed with the snow!  Always out playing, even if it's just her.  

 She also found this fabulous jacket when I took the Christmas tree down.

 And she started to go to Primary!  She's now a sunbeam and totally in love with Beckett.  This is a picture of their wedding.  With dinosaurs.  Because Beckett loves dinosaurs.

Before she was a sunbeam, one day she said, "Mom, Jesus wants me to be a Sunbeam and I'm not a Sunbeam."  She was so excited when she finally became one!

December family fun time!

Jeramy's work gave us 2 tickets to the new Star Wars Movie.  His co-worker gave us 4 more, so we took everyone!  He had let all of the girls watch the other 6 movies, so they were prepared for the violence and knew the story - probably better than I did.  

 We also got 4 tickets to a Jazz game.  We took Maddie and Lindsay.  On our drive up, Maddie said, "Why would anyone go to a Jazz game and root for the other team?"  We got a huge kick out of the Suns fan she got to sit next to.  :)