Spa Party this Saturday! 11/1

This is just a reminder to RSVP for the spa party that is going on this Saturday @ 3pm. See the post below for more details.

Spa Party Invitation!

Give yourself permission to escape!

When was the last time someone pampered you? Can’t remember?

• Then turn off your cell phone
• Close your emal
• Kick off your shoes
• And bring your gorgeous self over to...

Relax Your Mind …Rejuvenate, Repair, and Reverse the tides of time

Hosted by Spa Diva Sara Christensen on November 1st at Sara’s house.

Treatments without the costly salon/spa fees: Facials, lip, hand, foot,
eye treatments & more!

No phone or job related stress or worries.No husbands, significant others, children, babies or pets.

This is one hour of you time. Your chair is being reserved – the spa starts at 3:00pm. One hour of spa time, with girl time afterwards! So leave all stress, problems and headaches behind! Be prepared to take a deep breath and just say Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…

Be ready to have some FUN! Be ready to relax with the girls!
Come casual with minimal makeup.
RSVP to Sara by leaving a comment to this post.
Your relaxing head to toe spa escape will feature high quality, botanically based skin care & spa treatments for your face, lips, hands, feet and inner spirit.

I love October

I think October has to be one of my favorite months. And, no, its not just cause my birthday falls within these 31 days. I love October because its not too hot and the sun is still shining. I love October because its not wierd for a kid to dress up like a dead cheerleader, in fact we give her candy for it. I love October because people think its funny for someone to chase you with a chain saw. (I, for one am not one of those people who think its funny). I love October because it reminds me of my mom telling me "Don't slip on the wet leaves!" every time I walked out the door. (She said it so often it turned into a joke). I love October because I think of apple cider, pumpkin patches, hay rides, corn mazes, and happy kids all hopped up on sugar! This October has and will be a good one. Jake got to come home, Kanyon is growing up and eating baby food, I am going to NY, I will be turning 30 (not sure if that makes this a good month or not, I haven't quite decided), and Jake & Kanyon will get to go Trick Or Treating for the first time. I hope all of you can enjoy October as much as I will.
Below I have posted some pics of some of our early October happenings.

This is Kanyon eating squash for the first time. I was actually kind of disappointed that she didn't make a terrible face at the taste of it and spit it all out. It was one of the few times I had the camera ready to catch a moment like that. But instead it was funny to watch her always try to shove her fingers in her mouth. I was impressed that she ate the entire container of it on her first try! An appetite like her Daddy.



We took a field trip to Gardner Village with Nana. (And I do mean FIELD TRIP- its alot of work getting 3 kids, a Nana, a pregnant woman and me in one car with all the necessities for everyone. I thought we were going to have to rent a bus to get there, but Kate's Durango worked just fine.)
And I forgot to mention earlier that Kanyon & I rode the Front Runner for the first time! Whoo hoo!

PS- These will be the last posts for a while until I get back from NY. I can guarantee you Jake won't update it.

Happy October!

He's Baacck!

Yippee! Jake is finally back from Texas! Its been an entire month! I am glad he is a hard worker, but I am REALLY glad he is home now. We had a fun "Welcome Home" party for him when he got back, complete with balloons and presents. (but there was no camera taking any pictures of that..boo!) Anyway, here were some highlights of his first day back home.

Kanyon had her 4 month dr appt the same day Jake got home. Dr told us to start rice cereal...so here are a couple pics of our first attempt. It actually didn't go all that bad.



Dad & Kanyon sporting the same hairstyle.

Pictures & A Jake Update

I took Kanyon to get her pictures done today. We kept trying to get some family pics taken at 3 months, but it seemed like something would come up every time we had an appointment to do it. So, I took it upon myself to just go have her pictures professionally taken...so what if her 3 month old pictures were taken a month too late... At least they are done! However I did have a really hard time making her smile. I left feeling like she was the most serious baby in the world. These are just 2 samples of the pics we took. I get to go next week and see them all and pick out the ones I want.

**Update**Jake called today. Said that he was headed North...then West....that means he's coming home to Utah!! But wait...not so fast--don't get too excited. There is a kink in this story. So yeah, he called and he was headed home. He said the company in Houston decided not to use them and sent them away. Well, for whatever reason, hours later, Jake gets a call saying to turn around and head back to Houston. They are going to need their help afterall. Now, I am not sure exactly why that happened, but I would like to speculate that it had something to do with contract negotiations. If Sturgeon Electric doesn't get what they ask for, they head out. So maybe that happened then some compromises were made to bring them back. Too bad they were already in Dallas by the time Jake got the call. So, starting tomorrow morning Jake will be in Houston- and not on his way home.

The Weekend

JAKE! You need to come home!! Things are getting out of control! Kanyon got her first kiss from a BOY!
We went to dinner with some friends last night. Both couples have little boys and its kind of a joke about which one will "whoo" Kanyon. Well this lucky little one, Parker, was the one to give her the first kiss.
*********************************************************************************

This is a picture of Kanyon next to a watermelon that we grew in our garden! Can you believe that they both weigh 15 lbs?! This weekend we picked all the watermelon. We picked 13 of them, the heaviest weighed in at 25 pounds. This was Jake's favorite thing that we grew, and now he's not here to eat it! I am going to keep a couple in the cellar, hoping to keep them cool and fresh for him so he can enjoy them too!

Jake: Update

My last update on Jake was on Sept 8- I shouldn't have gone that far between updates. Too much time as passed. He has been gone since Labor Day. He was working in Louisiana. They evacuated the "man camp" when Hurricane Ike was making landfall. They ended up being put up at the Paragon Casino & Resort in Marksville, LA. They spent a couple nights there doing a little gambling at the 3 card poker table and eating at the buffet for free! After the storm hit, they quickly realized most of the damage was in Texas. However, they had a few things to finish up in Louisiana before they could move on. One project was getting the "ghetto" part of Baton Rouge hooked back up with power. They previously had a different crew of guys working in that section of the city and a group of "thugs" drove by with guns and shot up a nearby house. Obviously that was enough to get those workers out of there, and that particular crew left the job unfinished. A few days later Jakes crew gets called to finish it up. Jake said that this time they had the roads blocked off and the workers were in a boxed in area that they were not to leave. Not only that, but this boxed in area was guarded by ATF men (Federal Agency- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives) with guns protecting them. That was quite an experience for him.

After that was over they headed over to the great land of Texas, where he is right now. They've been putting power back to some small outback towns north of Houston. (If your familiar with the area, he is near Huntsville- where "Old Sparky" is in an execution museum of somesort) The "man camp" in this area is at a Baptist Retreat Camp. There are a bunch of large cabins that have about 20 beds each in them. There are 2 functioning bathrooms and showers. He'll call when he is waiting in line to shower at night. He says the showers are so cold, he swears they are pumping the water directly from an Alaskan glacier. (There isn't any power hooked up to the camp yet). Sounds like a bunch of guys having fun at summer camp! haha. He found out today that he thinks that they are staying in this area till Wednesday then heading into Houston to work for a couple weeks longer. Stay tuned for the next update.

She's finally home!

Baby Kanyon is finally home. She was down in Price the last week hanging out with her Granny, Grandpa Dennis & Uncle Dave while I recovered from my surgery and while Jake is still in Texas. (I will write an update on him shortly). Its amazing how much you miss in just one week. She is starting to laugh so much more and she is reaching for her toys now! She's getting too big too fast. I am definately very lucky that I have a great husband who lets me stay home with her all the time. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to miss all these moments. Welcome back home Baby Kanyon. We missed you!

Again....Wanted: A New Nurse

So I am home from surgery and I have so much that I want to blog about that it is intimidating me to even start.

This might be a long post, but bear with me...you will be glad that this didn't happen to you.

Just for the record...I have cheated and copied some stuff from my sisters blog and tweaked it to be my own...The pain meds are making me creative that way....haha

On Sunday Kate & I had the opportunity of visiting Davis Hospital ER for the first time and hopefully the last. Yes we are fine. I was scheduled to have my gallbladder out on Monday, but Sunday I was having such fierce pains that Kate took me to the ER. I figured I wouldn't miss my gallbladder that much if they took it out one day early.

(The following are Kates thoughts in italics) When I think of the ER I am thinking Emergency Room and Emergency meaning help, fast! I think that is a reasonable definition. Now maybe because I haven't had that much experience with ER's (only 2) that I found it absolutely ridiculous that you have to wait in the waiting room for 40 minutes or so before they will even call you back to ask you what is wrong. hmm... Now I wasn't planning on having this big ER, Grey's Anatomy experience but I did expect a friendly front desk gal (we didn't get that) and for it not to take about a half hour just for the lady to print out the wrist band and then call out the name "Sara" like she has never heard of the name before in her entire life. Finally the triage nurse (there is only 1) calls out Sara and we walk about 15 paces behind the huge doors and into a little room where she monitors her blood pressure and asks her whats the problem. After the problem has been discussed (extreme pain due to a no good gall bladder) they bring us to a curtained off room and we wait. This nurse who came in to draw blood and put in the IV was a nicer one we experienced that day BUT she had to stick Sara twice with the IV needle which is bad news and if you know Sara that is EXTREMELY bad news. Finally she gets it in her hand and a few minutes later Sara tells her it still really hurts and this is the response "It shouldn't hurt anymore" (turns around and leaves) hmm.. Glad we are liars. Another nurse comes in to administer some morphine I don't think she made eye contact once or made one personable comment the whole time, that is irritating to me. People who are here are scared and need comfort you crabby A** woman. Meanwhile while we are waiting for the Dr. we can hear all the conversations, poor old grandma quit her blood pressure medication a week ago and now is having chest pains, the Dr. asks "Why did you stop taking it?" Response "Because it makes me ache all over, and its not worth it" another conversation at the nurse's station "All my notes are gone, my file, everything!" "It's gone are you sure?", "Yes, everything!" Glad we're staying here is my reaction. Like the poor Davis Hospital ER could take anymore confusion- they get a call that life flight is coming, just what they need! Needless to say Sara is wheeled off to another room, new nurse, more morphine and finally go home. The positive experience , The Dr. was pleasant. The nurse let Sara go home with the IV in her hand (it is still painful), she gets to the hospital today and they are confused why they would let her go home with it and the IV isn't even in the vein, so through all of that it has to come out and a new one needs to be put in.

Now, I, Sara, will give you my side to this story. So yes, if you know me, poking me with a needle does not put a smile on my face. These nurses were SOOOO RUDE! So, the nurse who tried to put my IV in the first time was REALLY nice, however if she stopped yacking for 2 minutes she might have been able to put the IV in my arm without blowing out my vien. She then sticks a cottonball on the hole she made in my arm and ties a tourniquet around my arm. Then she finally gets the IV in my hand. And, just as Kate said, a different, really RUDE nurse comes in to give me the morphine...let me remind you that she still has the tourniquet around my arm!! and she just pushed this medicine into my arm...with no where to go becuase I have a tourniquet on!! And I told the nurse that it hurt like hell going through my viens- all she said was "well, its not supposed to hurt anymore"...no SH**...thats why I am telling you that it hurts! Something isn't right! Then I make the reference that the tourniquet is still around my arm and she says "well your hand is not blue so there must be some circulation." So...my hand hurt so bad...even the slightest pressure hurt. They sent me home with the IV still in so they wouldn't have to do it again in the morning when I had my surgery.

So the next morning I have to be at the hospital at 8am. Let me remind you that my had hurt so bad that I could barley pick up a dinner fork to eat with AND when one of my friends saw it she thought my arm was broken cause it was swollen in such a weird way. Anyway, I get to admitting in surgery and they have me strip and put a gown on. The new nurse I got was wonderful. I will say that first. But she asked me 'what is that on your arm?'..so I told her the story and she was a little shocked. The tried to flush the IV but it had infiltrated and was no longer in my vien and everything was just going into the tissue (hence all the swelling). Anyway, she told me that the ER nurse didn't do me any favors by leaving this one in me overnight.

So...finally I had the surgery. If you all remember what that gall bladder looks like on my earlier post, just think of that and being 3 times bigger! No Lie! My gall bladder was about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide! They are only supposed to be about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide. I should try to post the pic that the doc gave me after surgery. Anyway, now I have 4 little incisions and I am pretty sore. But if anyone is ever thinking of going to Davis ER, please don't.

Adios, Mr. GallBladder

Ok.. so instead of going to NY on Monday, I will be going to the OR. No, that doesn't stand for Oregon- it stands for the Operating Room! Go figure. It sucks that I am going to have to postpone my trip, but I really need to get this thing out. The surgeon showed me the ultrasound picture of my gall bladder today...it is SO chuck full of stones that they couldn't even get a good picture. So, everyone, please say "adios" to Mr. GallBladder