Surgery, Newlywed Game, GNO's... OH MY!

Jon has been visiting the Urologist a lot lately to discover a 3-4 centimeter stone in his bladder. YIKES that's right it was CENTIMETERS not MILLIMETERS!!!!!!!!!!!
We had several tests that had to be done and concluded that he would need surgery to try to remove the stone from his bladder. This was basically a "Star Wars" game for the surgeon. Most stones are VERRRY teeny tiny-not this one though.

We had to check into the hospital at 830am-they put him under and an hour later they had lasered down 50-60% of the stone. The surgeon decided not to push his body another hour to remove all of it-
but to be happy where they had gotten and have Jon come in for another round of surgery.

We got out of the hospital that day around 430pm. We had to do certain procedure's every hour around the clock and thru the night. EXHAUSTION for both of us no doubt. We have SUCH great friends who brought in dinner for a couple of nights, Jons parents took the girls to the beach that day because there was no school. It went very smoothly all in all and we were SO grateful. When Jon had surgery when he broke his neck, it took 2 HOURS JUST to get the tube down his throat--so we were VERY nervous-but it all went smoothly... PHEW.

He had to stay down in bed for a full week-thankfully he is able to use his laptop while in bed so he got a lot accomplished, but by about saturday he was thoroughly bored with being up in the bedroom all alone with just the computer. He was so happy Monday came so that the cath could be removed and he could be up and about in his chair again. He has recovered SO WELL from it-we are all so happy.

We are not sure when the second surgery will be again-but atleast we know what is in store for us and can be prepared again with family & friend help.

Each year Jon & I host a Valentines Newlywed Game Night-one word. HILARIOUS! It is SUCH a fun night and the game takes sooooooooo long because we all can't stop laughing!





Jons brother Scott & Kellie have won the past couple of years, this time they were BEAT-all because Scott is a "better reader then her" um ya who knew?! Too fun.

Lastly, GNO's (Girls Night Out) are simply the best. I love Facebook because it strengthens friendships & helps you get to know other people you wouldnt REALLY get to know. Sometimes we limit our friendships with only those we attend church with, those we blog with or a select few that we meet at our children's schools or sports clubs. With Facebook I have been able to really get to know people, whether they are family I have reconnected with, friends I have reconnected with, people from previous wards, or schools I have attended. I have seen how most everyone is doing such a great job raising their own families, attending their own churches & being great role models.

I just love people & relationships. I love to know when their lives are good or when their lives are hard. I have learned from Facebook just HOW MANY PEOPLE I personally know that are suffering that I wouldnt have ever known. It is crazy to see so many are really suffering with illnesses, accidents, job losses, or financial situations. You then pick up the latest Ensign Magazine & every other article is about overcoming trials. The people of the Earth are no doubt being tested. In the end life is about our relationships here on Earth & what or how we strengthen them. I feel that blogging and facebook are great tools for just that.

I am grateful that through our trials of life, we have things like blogs, Facebook, & GNO's to get us thru these trying times. One of my friends recently posted on Facebook "When God closes one door, He opens another but that doesn't mean it's not hell in the hallway!" Sometimes that is the truth! It made me chuckle. There are some who could care less about blogging or facebooking and that's okay. To each is there own as they say! What works for one person may not work for the next.

I joke that I am the "Social Fun President!" around here. I am always wanting to get people together to do ANYTHING FUN! Even if it's sneaking off to Chili's at 10pm after all is taken care of at home for yummy cheese fries, or to Cherry on Top for a quick dessert OR a GNO. We have had up to 25 girls join us for a end of the month dinner at a restaraunts like Cheesecake Factory

or most recently Claim Jumper



-which by the way did you know the Blackened Bow Tie Pasta is 3778 CALORIES?!?!?!! dude. Thankfully I had the Cedar Plank Salmon

at only a WHOPPING 985 calories-good grief this was the only healthy thing they had!

I joke (altho I am being SERIOUS) that I am going to start filming all of us crazy ladies at one of our late night Cherry on Top visits

for The Real Housewives of the IE! (Inland Empire)--we have way too much fun together. LOVE ALL THESE GIRLS!

Jon & I are going to be working VERY HARD together with Nuriche. We are so grateful to have this chance to change our lives forever. Our life will truly be completely different in 16 months. We are SO grateful for a tool in which together we can use to make our future so bright. Our lives are moving in a forward direction!!! Happy, Happy Days for us.

Where'd my Thoughts go?

I thought I had some good thoughts to write about but with my current head cold,

they seemed to be lost in with all the congestion! geesh

We have been struggling with our sweet Sarah.

The girl can back talk like NO OTHER! Does anyone else have this problem? Maybe it's just us!

And lets not forget about THIS!

It says "Mom is a Butt!" and in the hymns no less-nice.

I have always felt the child that acts out the most needs the most one on one time. When we pray at night, we always pray for our children and Sarah usually gets the "please prompt us in ways to help Sarah and to help change her behavior with love and kindess" hoping that we will be guided how to help her.

Sarah has a problem with "always having the LAST WORD!"
example:
ME: "Sarah can you please pick up the dining room?"
SARAH: "But I didnt make the mess!"
ME: "I know but you are incharge of that room."
SARAH: "That's not fair."
ME: "I know sorry babe-just hurry real fast."
SARAH: "But I didnt mess it up!"
ME: "I know just hurry and get it picked up-the other girls have their rooms they are cleaning up."
SARAH: "But that's not fair!"
ME: "Enough already honey-spend less time talking to me about it and pick it up real fast!"
SARAH: "But I didnt mess it up!"

you get the picture-and mind you she is saying each sentence AS I AM TALKING to her.
FRUSTRATING!

Needless to say she has spend the past THREE mondays in a ROW grounded for talking back. When we ground our children, it is "not to their rooms for 4 hours" but they get to clean-ya know all the stuff I dont want to do like laundry, baseboards, changing bed sheets etc. Our kiddos have to WORK when they are grounded.

Jon has felt prompted to take Sarah on a one on one walk to frozen yogurt. Apparently, she talked the ENTIRE TIME and told him all sorts of things every parent hopes their kids will do! It was awesome he said.

We have talked to her about HOLDING OFF to say anything until we ask her "Sarah do you have anything you want to say?" THEN she can give her opinion but not give her opinion DURING every sentence we speak to her. She has been SO MUCH better at it. I will hold up my fingers to my lips like "DONT SAY ANYTHING HOLD OFF!" and it works. I am happy that she is trying her best to change this behavior.

Last night Jon was incharge of Family Home Screaming. Why does it take us (sometimes) 30 minutes to go thru ONLY 5 minutes of the ACTUAL lesson?! I guess that's why I lovingly call it Family Home Screaming...sigh. Oh well-it didnt matter because at the end (our lesson was "Why it is important for us to have a strong testimony") & Jon was sharing his thoughts about why it's important and how life for them will be so different from our lives growing up and if they arent FIRM in their testimonies NOW-life will be even more difficult.
We looked over and Sarah had tears in her eyes. Imagine as parents how that made us feel-TOTALLY AWESOME!

We went to bed that night and our pray was giving Thanks to HF for helping guide is in direction with Sarah and being grateful that she was able to feel the Spirit right in our home. Isnt that what the Gospel teaches us-to teach our OWN children (not leaving it up to Primary) so that they know what it feels like to feel the Spirit. A sweet memory to be treasured in our hearts no doubt.

Last thursday we took the family to Disneyland.

Jons Grandma bought us all year passes-we had to go on Thursday to take our photos for the passes. It was PERFECT weather and we managed to hit all the rides in FOUR HOURS! We took the girls to Olive Garden for dinner after & hung out at my parents while the nasty 91 freeway traffic died down. It was a great day for our family.

Over the weekend Jon & I together attended a work event. It was great to be there with everyone & they had us speak to those in attendance.

Together Jon & I are going to be doing some amazing things with this company and feel it an honor with much responsibility to utilize this for our health and to help support our family. We are so grateful for those that have helped us along the way!

How do you help change the behavior of your children? Do you pray? Do you ground? What has worked best for you?