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.  :)

Christmas 2015

Our yearly gingerbread house...this year I honestly just left the room and let them go at it. It was hard for me, but good for them to be as creative as they wanted.

Christmas was a huge success, as usual. We have been so blessed that our children don't know it's a thing to wake up early. We woke them up around 8. Lexi was so upset and just wanted to sleep. Lexi got a Sofia the First tea set and a Clover (from Sofia also) stuffed animal, Macie got a new desk, Lindsay got a foot spa and pedicure stuff, Maddie got hair supplies (blow dryer, curling wand, etc).

6 months post-op

The past 6 months has flown by!  I can't believe it's been that long since my surgery.   I had my MRI last week and everything looked good and I don't have to go back to the Oncologist or the Surgeon for 6 months this time.  Yay!  I get to go to a Neurologist soon to have an EEG so I can start to wean off of the medication I've been on.  Super excited about that, also!  It'll be good to see if the things that have been different about me are from the medication or if it's just the new me.  ;)

I feel good, other than the achy joint problem that I'm hoping goes away with getting off the meds.  Bright lights and sounds aren't as bad anymore, but still bug me more than they used to.  I'm trying to be more social and being around people, but I still prefer not to be around anyone.  Still really irritable and have no tolerance for stupid people (especially stupid people with really loud kids).

Still haven't been able to lose any of the weight I gained (15 pounds).  We joined the gym and I can't work out too long or my head gets tingly and I know I've done too much.  Slow and steady and hopefully I'll start to see some results.  (And I'm hoping once again, that maybe it's the medication keeping the pounds on).

I know we have been so blessed.  I know things could be very different right now and I am so grateful that I'm functioning and feeling good!

I is for "ice"

 I teach preschool once a month and this time I got to teach the letter "I."  Very last minute, I decided to dump all the ice in my fridge into a container and let them play.  They played with ice forever.  It was so funny watching them!  While they were at our house, it snowed.  The minute all of her friends were gone, Lexi had to go out and play in the snow.  So cold!!  (She had to have a warm bath immediately after).

I can do hard things!

Maddie has the coolest piano teacher ever.  (And no, I don't teach her).  Her teacher had her write a song to enter in Reflections at school.
Maddie hated writing it.  It was a battle to get it done, but she did it and entered it, and won!  We got to go to a small awards ceremony where Maddie decided maybe it wasn't so bad after all and that she would do it again next  year.  (And she got a check for $8.  We giggled about that for a while).

Lexi and the tummy ache

Since August Lexi has been getting tummy aches just about every other week. She's in a lot of pain and doesn't sleep well because it hurts so bad.  I took her to the doctor multiple times and was told each time she was constipated and to give her Miralax.  We did that for months and finally last week when I took her in yet again, I demanded more be done.  So we got to go to Primary Children's and have x-rays and her blood drawn to check for celiac.

She was so brave!  When they drew her blood, she didn't even flinch, and then she watched as the blood left her sweet little body.  I couldn't even watch.  :(

She got stickers at both doctors and she put them all over her face.  And she refused to take off her green wrap on her arm.  In the night, the "bandaid fairy" had to come and take it off.  When she woke up in the morning she immediately noticed it was gone and said, "Why didn't anyone sign my cast?"
Love her!
Results came back that she was extremely backed up and we upped her dose of Miralax and added Ex-Lax also.  Nothing too impressive has come out yet, but no tummy aches this week!

Halloween!

 I decided I didn't want to carve pumpkins this year, so we painted them.  Way less mess and the kids had a blast painting their own pumpkins! (And the one with black crying eyes is Lindsay's.  She wanted it to look like it was crying).

 Halloween was a busy day!  Maddie had a dance performance at her school, then we had a class party for Macie and the Halloween parade.  Lexi was a great sport about being dragged everywhere.
Lexi was Princess Sophia, Macie was Jasmine, Lindsay was Maleficent, Maddie was a Tootsie Roll, then a Robber, then a Tootsie Roll.  Being 12 is hard.

 Princess Sophia got this cool little light and once she had that, she was done trick or treating and came home and played with it for the rest of the night.

Cornbelly's 2015

It was time for our annual trek to Cornbelly's!  We swore we were going to go early in the season before it got too cold and busy...yeah.  We didn't.  

 It was COLD and Busy!  But we still had a great time.  Lexi probably had the best time out of everyone.  She loved the dress up stage, the corn beach and pretty much everything there - except the big lizard.

 So grateful we were able to go and enjoy this night together as a family!

Egg drop of 2015

One of the joys of having kids one year apart in school is getting to do the same activities again just the next year!

Last year, Lindsay's egg didn't survive the drop off the school.

This year, Macie's did!  We put it in a box with tissues, then put balloons all around it.  Floated right down and did just fine!  This is one of my favorite activities the school does.  I love to see all of the different ideas that kids (and parents) come up with.