Spring Break!

My spring break was not fun.  My  poor mom was told last Friday that she would need surgery on her eyes right away.  So Wednesday of this last week she went in for the 4 hour surgery.  The doctor had to break all the bones around her eyes and remove a lot of tissue that had built up as a result of Graves disease.  The doctor at one point used a mallet to break a bone and another time a saw.  I'm sure the saw was high tech but I keep imagining a tiny hack saw.  Anyway it was an exhausting week.  My mom is recovering well.  She looks like she got into a brawl but she is home and getting better.

This is what she looked like coming out of surgery. 

Very zombiesque.  The blood trickling from her eyes was actually on both sides.  When I mentioned to the nurse how gruesome my mom looked the nurse said it was worse right after the surgery.  Not only was there blood running from her eyes but it was running from her nose too.  I'm glad I didn't witness that.  I was pretty grossed out by the blood coming from her eyes.  Not the most comforting thing to see on my cute 72 year old mom.

The best part was when they wheeled her down the hall as she was starting to wake up from surgery.  Looking like someone had just taken a bat to her she kept telling us that all she needed was a couple of Tylenol.  She is a tough lady.  

This is a day after surgery at home. 

Skiing and an addition to the family

 Holly's 5th grade class went skiing for a field trip Tuesday.  She has never been and was so excited she got up at 6:00 and was dressed in her thermals, snowsuit, hat and gloves before 7:00. 
 

   She loved it and wants to go again as soon as possible. 

We also have a new member of the family.  Rob and I have been talking about getting a dog for a few months.  I have read some articles about dogs helping people with mental disorders and we thought it might be a good thing to try.  We cleared it with my brother and with Rob's work (The plan was that Rob would be able to take the dog with him to his office) then Rob went to a shelter in Salt Lake.  He told the people at the shelter about his condition and asked for a really calm dog.  They gave him Annie (we named her Annie.  The shelter named her Daisy).  She is already everyone's favorite family member.  She is really well trained ( so well trained that I told Rob she is the best behaved short member of the family and isn't is sad that we had nothing to do with teaching her to behave.  We need to somehow find whoever trained her and send Max to be trained). Until today when I took her on my run with me I haven't heard her bark.  She barked once at a dog that was across the street from us.  Her favorite thing to do is lay down next to someone and have her belly rubbed.  The other day Rob was having a panic attack at work.  He lay down on the couch and Annie climbed up on his chest and lay down in a little ball.  Rob said that almost imediately his heart rate started to go back to normal and his breathing calmed.  

We are so happy to have this sweet dog with us and we are hoping that she continues to help Rob.

Sledding with friends!

I have already mentioned that our backyard is basically an awesome sledding hill.  We had our dear friends and former next door neighbors the Carlson's over (Tena and I had determined that we would be neighbors forever but then we moved).  What an lovely day!  Let's do it again!

New book and cover

Rob's new book cover.  This is so good!  The book and the cover.

s

Comes out in October (I think)

Pictures

I took some pictures of my cousin Autumn.  She is getting married in March. 

SNOW!

Holy crap snow!  Lot's and lot's of snow.  We have a hill behind our house that the kids love to sled on.  They went out for a bit today.  there was so much snow they had a hard time getting down the hill.

Sam is actually on the sled here.  He yelled "snow plow" all the way down.  

 

 Holly is also on a sled.

Amanda's questions

 

 

 My Friend Amanda gave me these questions to answer.  Thanks for nominating me!

 

1. When was the last time you cried?Watching Les Miserable with my sister two weeks ago.  I also cringed a lot.  Christina was sick and she kept blowing her nose.  So Gross!

2. What is your favorite outfit?hmmm. my denim skirt and my blue blouse with a sweater. 

3. What is your most recent triumph?  I painted my daughters room and bed posts. 

4. Where have you always wanted to visit, but haven't yet?Israel.  Not sure if that one will ever happen what with all of the instability in the area. 

5. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?an olympic runner and an astronaut (pilot). 

6. When you have 10 minutes of time to spare between responsibilities, what do you do?read a book (usually takes longer than the alotted 10 min.) or see what is going on in the world via internet

7. What is your least favorite household chore?Laundry!!  by far.  I hate laundry so much!

8. What is the household chore you might actually look forward to?organizing a room.  I don't much like the work but the outcome keeps me excited enough to do the job (sometimes).

9. What is your favorite kids' music? I have used to be favorite kids music but I can't listen to it anymore because I have heard it so often.  My used to be favorite kid music is the sound track from the Muppet Movie. 

10. What talent do you wish you had developed in your youth?  Ballet.  I love ballet.  It is so pretty and fun to do but I didn't start until college and my body just couldn't do all that it needed to be able to do. 

11. Without looking it up, what's your favorite go-to recipe?Best pancake recipe ever!  In a large bowl 3 cups milk; The juice of 1 lemon squeezed into the milk;  Let sit for 5 min.  6 Tbls melted butter; 3 eggs beaten.  mix all of these ingrediants.  Be sure to mix the butter in slowly.  Add 3 cups flour.  3 tsp Baking Powder; 1 1/2 tsp salt;  1 1/2 tsp baking soda.  mix until combined but batter should still be lumpy.  Don't mix too much.  Heat a skillet on Med.  (I have to play with the temp. every time.  It should be hot enough to brown the pancake slowly enough so that the inside starts to cook but the outside doesn't over cook.)  When the skillet is hot enough rub a stick of butter on the surface just enough to create a thin layer of butter.  Drop 1/4 of a cup of the batter on the skillet.  When the edges look dry not shiny and the middle starts to develop bubbles turn the pancake over.  I play with this recipe a lot.  Something I tried recently was 1 cup heavy cream and 2 cups milk to replace the 3 cups milk.  So good but so unhealthy.