I'm back!

After an extended absence, I'm back! We've had a few crazy months.

First, I had surgery in mid-August to remove scar tissue from the surgery when I had the tumor removed (long story for another day). They basically had to saw me in half to do it, so I had a pretty lengthy recovery.

Then the power cord for the computer broke and I didn't want to spend $120 for a new one so we were without a computer for a couple months. I finally decided to look on eBay and found one for $20, so we have computer access once again! Long live eBay.

And last Monday Kaitlyn had surgery to correct the midface deficiency. It was a pretty involved process, so I'll have to give details another day. I don't have any pictures transferred to my computer yet, so when I get them I'll post an email update.

Be back soon!

Kaitlyn's Face Surgery

We have to decide if we're going to do Kaitlyn's face surgery right now or if we're going to wait until she's older. The problem she has is that her maxilla (upper jaw) isn't growing, but her mandible (lower jaw) and forehead are. The result is that the middle part of her face is "sinking" for lack of a better word. She has a pretty serious under bite right now and also has sleep apnea that is caused by a small airway as a result of this problem. We're going to try c-pap to see if it helps the apnea, but I highly doubt we're going to be able to get her to keep the mask on her face all night. She just doesn't seem like the type that will cooperate with that (she's a stubborn little stinker - nothing at all like her mother! He he he he).

They will fix the problem by surgically attaching a device to her head that will attach to her maxilla. This will be cranked forward a few millimeters at a time until it is in the correct position.
The problem with the procedure is that it is very invasive, painful, and will keep her out of school for several months. Here's a picture of the device:



So obviously I can't send her to school while she has the device on. This will kill her because she loves school, but with the problems we had last year I'm not all that upset about homeschooling her for a few months. It may, however, drive me crazy. We'll see.

So we have to decide if we're going to do the surgery now, while she's still young and will hopefully forget all about it, or when she's older and better equipped to handle it mentally. If we don't do the surgery at all the problem will continue to get worse, and she could (and probably would) end up looking like she got punched in the face (along with her sleep apnea getting worse and possibly life threatening).

I hate having to make decisions like this, because I just don't know what the right thing to do is. Part of me can't bear to put my baby through this procedure, and part of me knows it has to be done. I'm talking to her orthodontist right now about the possibility of using a device at night that will prevent her from getting worse until she's older (around 16) and can have a different procedure that is less stressful and more internal (although it's also more painful and more invasive and may not work as well). I haven't heard back from the orthodontist to see what he thinks about it, but that may be an option.

The biggest problem is that she has horrible behavior being attributed to ADHD. We haven't been able to control her ADHD, and now I'm wondering if the behavior is being caused by sleep apnea instead of ADHD. If we can't get her to wear c-pap, or if she's just going to get worse and worse until c-pap doesn't really help her, we'll have to do the surgery no matter what.

Sigh. The things they don't tell you about when you sign up to be a parent...

Family photo

Finally, a family photo showing the best of us!



Ha ha. I kill myself. So here's another photo. Not quite so good of me, but better of everyone else.



But admit it - when you look at family photos, you're only really concerned with how you look.

The Eric Clapton concert, AKA The James Taylor Concert

A while back I posted that I was looking forward to going to the Eric Clapton concert this summer. And I was. I thought it would be awesome to finally see him in person and hear him tell the story of "Tears in Heaven" in person.

However, I actually had bought tickets to the James Taylor concert, since Eric Clapton was coming nowhere near Utah this summer. When I realized the mistake in my post, I decided to just leave it.

Anyway, the concert was great. We've seen him once before, but this time he was much more chatty and he was actually pretty funny. He sang all the classics, plus a few covers of some more recent songs. We had a great time, and it was wonderful to be able to have a date with my husband. Thanks again, Kaylene and Steve, for watching the rugrats, especially when you had to get up early for work the next day!



A picture of us at the concert... the man in the background is our guardian angel. The woman giving Mike the stink eye is our guardian devil.

Camping

We went camping as a family for the 2nd time since Ashton was born. Since our first trip camping was, well - let me just say disastrous, I was very nervous to try it again. But other than nearly getting eaten by a bear, we had a great time!

Ok, ok, so the bear didn't come within 5 miles of us, but it was still a close call. Since I'm going to do several posts today and I don't want my typin' fingers to get tired, I'll spare you the gory details. But if anyone is curious send me an email. It truly is a story to behold.

Evidently the high altitude and resulting lack of oxygen caused Ashton to forget how to dress himself.





After fixing his shirt (it wasn't worth it to fight over the pants), I got this picture of the two of them together. This was a rare, blissful moment of peace and quiet in the middle of the hootenany (how do you spell hootenany? I don't have a clue, although I'm sure some of you will chime in).



My mom came with us, which was a huge blessing because she cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and cooked, cooked, cooked. These are things I'm not particularly good at even when I'm not battling a water pump and propane stove. She made the trip much cleaner and tastier. Oh, and more fun. MOM, LOOK OUT! A BEAR!

My Brief Return to Junior High

I almost titled this blog something else since it refers to my recent American Idol concert experience, but I was afraid if I did I would make the authorities nervous. Those of you who know me well know what I mean.



This is my sister, my mom, and me at the concert last night.

I'll admit it. I'm an American Idol geek. I live for the start of the season and spend the next few months working feverishly to clear up my Tuesday and Wednesday nights (thanks to Karin and Hannah for being understanding this season - we had to rearrange violin lessons, something I don't allow students to do, to accommodate AI on Tuesdays). My fervor intensified this year due to the amazing, talented, adorable, DAVID ARCHULETA.

I couldn't find our digital camera yesterday, so I showed up at the concert with a disposable 35 mm and the camera on my phone. My phone camera is really crappy, so I got absolutely no pictures except two. Seriously, I took hundreds in an attempt to get a couple of digital shots and they all turned up as bright pillars of light:



In case you can't tell, that is a picture of Jason Castro singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

So anyway, I kept taking pictures even though it appeared futile. To my great astonishment and wonder, two pictures ended up being remotely identifiable, and BOTH OF THEM WERE OF ARCHIE. I guess this proves that it pays to live right (or something like that).



This picture is when he first started singing. They brought him up to the stage on a platform, sitting at a grand piano. He sang 4 songs, and the crowd didn't stop screaming until he yelled into the microphone that it was David Cook's turn to sing and then turned and walked off the stage (sweetly and politely of course). I doubt the crowd would ever have stopped screaming. In case you can't identify him in the picture, he is in the bottom right corner sitting at the piano. I have no idea what's on the jumbotron (center of the picture).



This is a picture of him on the jumbotron. I think you can actually identify that it's him in this picture. Well, sort of.

Besides listening to him sing, there were two other highlights of the evening. First had to do with Michael Johns. His picture:

Well, I can't upload the picture because blogspot is having issues. Either that or my computer is. But imagine the picture of Jason Castro, and pretend it's a picture of Michael Johns. Anyway, he was wearing a jacket during his first two songs. He said that it was getting hot so he took off his jacket, revealing...

a t-shirt saying "I VOTED FOR DAVID ARCHULETA!"

So cute!

Last highlight: What is the worst part of going to any concert? That's right, road rage in the parking lot after it's over. Well, when we bought the tickets online we paid $25 for a parking pass so we wouldn't have to worry about it that night. What we didn't know is that it was for PREMIUM parking, which ended up being really cool. We parked right at the E-Center and were 5 rows from the exit. We figured it wouldn't take too long to get out, so we were excited. We also got our own entrance into the concert so we didn't have to wait in the long lines at the REGULAR people entrance.

It turns out that our seats were the first seats we came to when we entered the arena (from our private entrance). We were on a riser on padded chairs, and were right next to the vestibule thing where you enter. We literally couldn't have been closer or more convenient to our car (we also had an absolutely perfect view of the stage because we were raised about two feet from the floor and there was no one in front of us). So when the concert was over, we booked it to the parking lot, got in the car, and left the concert all in LESS THAN 5 MINUTES. From the moment we left our cushy, padded seats until we were on 3100 south headed for home was less than 5 minutes. I kid you not. It was the most amazing driving experience I've ever had, and it was all complete luck. Now that I know, however, I'll be sure to repeat that amazing convergence of circumstances the next time we go to the E Center.

One last thing of note, and this is going to prove what a total geek I am because it's bringing tears to my eyes even now. I loved Brooke White, and not even because of the whole Mormon thing. I think she is an amazing singer and has one of the most beautiful, distinctive voices I've ever heard. I was really looking forward to hearing her sing. She sang "Yellow" by Coldplay, which is a favorite song of mine. When she got to the chorus, she sang, "You know I love you so... Utah I love you so." I don't know why that touched me so much, except she realized that she has a huge fan base here and acknowledged it.

The concert was awesome and we had a great time. I'm sad it's over because I've been looking forward to it for so long, but hopefully some of them will be back. And I have to say that I have more respect and appreciation for David Cook now. I noticed he had the initials AC on his guitars, and wondered if they were for his brother - the one who tried out with him and didn't make it. I found out that the initials are for him (Andrew Cook), but also for his other brother Adam who has terminal brain cancer. As a rule I don't like David Cook because he took the title away from Archie, but I was impressed by his love for his brothers and touched by his tribute.

So now it's over and the only thing I have to look forward to is Eric Clapton sometime in August. Sigh.

Picture of Me and Mike

It has come to my attention that some people are bothered by the fact that there are no pictures of me and Mike on my blog. We just plain don't have any pictures of ourselves, so I had someone take a picture of us Saturday night at a party. Thought I'd include it here:



There. Hope you're satisfied.