Is there a doctor in the house? (WARNING: MAJOR RANT!)

No, seriously. We just need an in-house doctor. This is getting ridiculous, I don't know whether I should laugh or cry. Before I go into our new medical issues, here's a recap of our last 9 months.

August- Ryan and Jenna are born 2 months early by emergency c-section and are in the NICU for over 2 weeks.

November- Heidi gets diagnosed with a non-life-threatening congenital heart defect and two different heart murmurs.

December- Ryan spends several days at Phoenix Children's Hospital for seizure-like activity.

January- I have tubal occlusion surgery at the beginning of the month, and Heidi has epigastric hernia repair surgery at the end of the month.

March- My Grandpa dies and the twins get RSV.

April- I have a hysterectomy, and the twins get RSV again, and then adenovirus.

Now to the present. Surgery #5 belongs to Scott. He is having his labrum and rotator cuff repaired on May 23rd. That is not going to be a fun surgery for him. He will be in a sling for 6 weeks after that. And for the grand finale (hopefully) and surgery #6 in 9 months, Ryan has an inguinal hernia that has to be repaired. He has an appointment this Thursday with the surgeon.

It might sound like I am just whining and complaining in this post, and well, I am. I am so ready to be done with surgeries and illnesses and doctor's appointments. I feel like I have been very strong through everything that has been going on, but it is really starting to wear on me. I just can't imagine having to hand off my baby boy to the nurse and let them take him back to surgery. It was hard enough with Heidi, and she is four. We need a break from all of this. So please, if you remember, please pray that we can have a healthy and uneventful summer.

Thanks for reading my sob story. I will make sure that my next post is full of cute pictures and happiness. :)

Oh. Em. Gee.

This is soooooooooooo cute!

korean baby singing hey jude

Fun Stuff

We have been having so much fun having playdates with our friends! On Tuesday we went to my cousin Melissa's house in Phoenix, and she has two little girls that are 2 and 7 months. It gives me a little taste of how things would be if I had had triplets!



Then on Wednesday, we were lucky enough to have my niece Marley (Jared's little girl) over for a little bit. She is just the sweetest little thing, and she loved nibbling on the twins' toes.







We gave the babies their first bath in the big girl/boy bath tub. Jenna loved it, but Ryan was a little overwhelmed and he refused to sit up. They loved their light up rubber duckies that Aunt Lisa gave them. Thanks Aunt Lisa!











My little Guitar Hero!

I'm So Excited!!!!

I have been working towards getting into Nursing school for a long time. I finished all of my prerequisites and was on the waiting list for 2 years before finally being accepted. Well, of course I got accepted just a few months after the twins were born, and I was supposed to start in March. For obvious reasons I had to withdraw, but I put myself back on the list so that in 2 more years when I got accepted again the twins would be older and it would be a little bit easier to go to school. Well, I got to thinking a while back that the reason I was still wanting to go to Nursing school was because I had worked so hard for so long, but my heart really wasn't in it anymore. I wanted to work in the NICU, but after our NICU experience with the twins, I realized that it would be too emotional for me to see babies that didn't do as well as mine did. I also realized that I don't really want a full-time career, I just want something that I can call my own and have a ton of fun doing a couple of days a week. Well, I have always been obsessed with skin care and make-up, and I even enrolled for an Aesthetics program several years ago, but it was when we owned the tanning salon and things were just way too crazy to add something else to the mix. So I decided that now is the time! Last night I went and completed all of my enrollment paperwork for the Aesthetics program at Kar-Che' Institute, and school starts June 24th. I am so excited I can hardly stand it! The program includes all kinds of facials, tons of different product knowledge, facial massage, chemical peels, microdermabrasion, airbrush tanning, make-up application, waxing, laser hair removal, and tons more. They also have a new medical aesthetics class that includes injectables and cellulite treatments and stuff like that. I told Scott that I am so excited for him and I to have perfect skin!

For all of you who live in AZ, I am going to need guinea pigs! I will need people to come get treatments while I am in school, and I need case studies, where you come in once a week for different treatments. If you are a case study, you get 75% off treatments, so you would get things such as microdermabrasion and peels for $25! Let me know if you are interested!

Also, I might need a babysitter every now and then when Scott is away on business or hunting. I know for sure of 2 week long hunts that he will be gone for. If anyone knows of a good reliable babysitter that could handle my 4 kids, I would love some referrals. I'm really paranoid about babysitters, so I only want the best. My class is in the evenings, and I would be home around 10:30 at night. Please let me know if you have a great babysitter!

Pictures!

Here are some recent pictures. Enjoy!









Where's Ryan?



Peek-a-boo!







Heidi woke up in the middle of the night the other night and was cold so she got up and put her raincoat on. This is how I found her in the morning:



And little Ryan wasn't feeling well because the twins have RSV AGAIN, so he crashed out on the family room floor the other day.



Bathing beauties.



And finally, here's a link to a pic of my tummy after my hysterectomy. I didn't want to post it in case it bothered anyone.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a383/sajacobs1/IMG_0177.jpg

I've been tagged!

Here are the top 10 reasons why I love my life (in no particular order):

10. Health- Yes, despite all of the crazy things we have going on at our house, I really am thankful that we don't have any health issues that cannot be treated. I would rather deal with 10 little treatable things than one big medical crisis.

9. "Things"- I know that the car you drive and the size of your house really don't matter at all, but I am so thankful that we are able to live in comfort and provide for our children.

8. Opportunities- I love that we have every opportunity at our fingertips, we just have to reach out and take it. We can go to school and learn whatever we want, we can start a new career, we can have as many children as we want and raise them the way we know is right, and we can believe in whatever religion we want.

7. Family- I don't know many people that have been through as much as my family has been through and is still really close to each other. The older I get, the more it means to me to have such awesome parents and siblings.

6. Scott- Amazing. That one word describes him perfectly. He works so hard in and out of the home, and never ever complains. He is so sweet to the kids and to me, and I always know that he is still so in love with me, because he tells me all the time. He's an all-in-one type of guy. There is nothing that he can't fix, build, save, or create. He's quite a man.

5. Kiddos- I would not be who I am today if I didn't have these sweet little angels in my life. They are the best, sweetest, most beauitful kids in the whole wide world! I love them so much, I would not trade being a mom for anything.

4. Friends- I have the best friends. Playdates, coffee dates, happy hour, and pedicures are so much fun when you are with a good friend. If only they would stop moving away (Shalana, Carrie, and Tricia!)!

3. School- I LOVE SCHOOL! I am starting back on June 24th, and I am so excited. I want to get my textbooks right now and memorize them before class even starts!

2. God- I love knowing that anytime, day or night, I have someone to talk to. Whether the problem is big or small, it doesn't matter, he totally understands!

1. Happiness- It feels amazing to be 100% truly and completely happy. I love my life, I love my family, and I wouldn't cahnge a thing. I love having that peace in my heart.

I tag Damiane', Megan, Stephanie, and Mandy. Tell me what you love about your life!

Who's the Susie in your life?

I received this email from my cousin today, and it was just too sweet to not share.

Come with me to a third grade classroom.....

There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, "Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat."

He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that say he has been discovered. As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, "Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!"

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. "You've done enough, you klutz!"

Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Susie whispers back, "I wet my pants once too."

May God help us see the opportunities that are always around us to do good. Remember... Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car. Each and everyone one of us is going through tough times right now, but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that only He can. Keep the faith.

Home Sweet Home

Wow. I wish that I had been prepared for how miserable that surgery was. The good news is that they were able to do it laparoscopically. The bad news is that when they got in there, they found a ton of scar tissue that had fused my bladder to my uterus. They also found a large amount of endometriosis. So since they had to remove all that scar tissue and the endometriosis, I am in a lot of pain. The doctor said that they almost had to go ahead and make the incision, but they were able to just barely get by. So now I have a c-section scar that is close to being hip to hip, two two-inch scars on either side of my belly, and a large puncture in my belly button. It's a good thing that scars don't bother me! They were only going to make me stay Wednesday night, but I spiked a fever and was having problems with my pulse, oxygen levels, and diminished lung sounds, so I had to stay another night. But I can't tell you how nice it feels to be laying in my own bed! With my sweet kids laying by me! My doctor said that I am on complete bedrest for 5-6 days, and that I am not aloud to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds for four weeks. Yeah, I don't think that is going to happen. Maybe the bedrest, but not the lifting part.

Sorry if I am rambling, I am still heavily medicated. I may not make much sense at all right now! Thank you to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, messages, and phone calls. I really have some awesome friends!

Surgery Tomorrow

Well, tomorrow is the big day. When we first decided to do the hysterectomy, I wasn't nervous at all, just excited to get it over with. But the closer I get to surgery, the more nervous I become, because it is such a major surgery. Also, the doctor isn't quite sure what kind of incision he is going to have to make, and he won't know until he gets in there. We are hoping to do it laparoscopically, where he will make three smaller incisions, but there might be too much scar tissue from my two c-sections to do it that way. If that's the case, he will have to make a full abdominal incision, and the recovery will be just like a c-section. Yuck. I think not knowing exactly what is going to happen is making my anxiety worse. I am dreading sleeping in a hospital bed, getting woken up several times a night for vitals, pain, and not being with my family. But I am excited for no more bleeding, no more pain in the future, and a chance to get a nap! I would trade several weeks of discomfort for a lifetime of freedom any day of the week!

This might sound silly, but getting a hysterectomy is a little bit sad to me. My uterus has played a really important role in my life! My babies grew in there! And even though I have four kids, it's also a little sad that there is no way that I will ever be able to have any more babies. (Scott, don't have a heart attack!) We had made the decision that we were done after the twins, but really finalizing it is crazy. Bittersweet.

Anyway, I will update you all when I am home and coherent. I'm not sure how long I will be in the hospital; it depends on what happens with the incision. Pray that Scott doesn't go crazy alone here with all 4 kids!

Oh yes, I almost forgot. I pulled the best/worst April Fool's joke on Scott this morning. I called him "crying" and said that the hospital had called and cancelled my surgery because they got my pre-op bloodwork back and my pregnancy test was positive. I thought he was going to cry. When he finally figured it out, he said, "You have no idea how many emotions I just went through!" And then he called me some names. It was great.