Uuuhhh....What The?!?!

So...you know how I was ranting and raving about the wonderful weather?! Ya...well I woke up this morning to take a nasty Praxis II Math test and this is what I found! It had snowed 3-4 inches overnight and was still snowing! I had to take a picture! Not only was I up before 7am on a Saturday, and had to take a Math test, but it was snowing as well!! What the?!
As you can tell...Tipz is thinking the same thing, but I don't think she's editing words in her head! She hates the snow! Not a great Alaska dog...she spent her first 2 years in St. George, Utah. I seriously opened the door first thing to let the dogs out, and that's where she stopped. Bo thinks snow is great fun...he doesn't care what's going on outside...he's just happy to be there. Tipz on the other hand, looked at the snow, looked back at me, and attempted to come back inside. Of course I wouldn't let her...she hadn't been out all night! So...I just shut the door, and she promptly turns around and sits on the door matt and stares intently at me from outside. She didn't move for 5-10 minutes. She finally realized I wasn't going to let her back in, so she trotted off the deck about 30 feet, did her business, and was back staring through the door. I had to take a picture!

It continued to snow for another few hours. We probably got 5 inches of snow, but it's still fairly warm so it's heavy and wet. I just have to say that at least I don't live in Anchorage...they got 24 inches!! I'm sure it will melt quickly, but are you kidding me?! Seriously...gotta love living in Alaska!!

First BBQ!!

It's our first BBQ of the year!! It has been sooo nice up here the past week. It actually got into the 60's the day we had our BBQ. The snow's almost entirely gone from our yard...you can see a little bit in the background of the pics. So...Shayne decided it was time to bust out his BBQ apron and cook up some chicken. I wasn't complaining!

While the chicken was cooking, Shayne and Bo plaid a little soccer. I can't even tell you how much Bo has loved the nice weather. He's not the greatest at playing fetch, but he loves to kick a ball around. He and Shayne had way too much fun.

Do you wanna know where Tipz is the whole time they are playing?! Yup...making sure that no food was going to waste. :) She's our little vacuum/mop in the house. You couldn't tell by her slightly round shape though! :)

Aaahhh...how cute! If you think Tipz is posing all cute like that...think again! I have her propped up between my knees and Bo, so she didn't roll over on her back so anyone could pet her belly! It was a cute pic though!

We are loving the great weather!! Can't wait for more...and for the green leaves!!

Fishing Again...

So...Shayne's at it again! He's been on the Kasilof river, which is about 10-15 minutes from our house, fishing for Steel Head. As you can see, he's been fairly successful. He's been out about 3 or 4 times this spring, and has landed something every time. The weather has been wonderful, and the snow is melting off quick.



Funny story about Shayne...He went fishing on Thursday with a buddy and was having a grand ole' time. His buddy had a fish on, and wanted Shayne to take a pic of it. So Shayne starts headin' toward the guy, but neglects to see the big rock in the river in front of him. He hits the rock and falls face-forward. Now he's only in about 2 feet of water, but b/c he fell face forward, his feet are floating up behind him, and it's just deep enough he can't put a hand down to push himself back up. So, he's just floating there, trying to get his feet underneath him. The other guy looks back at Shayne and just sees him floating with the current, in the water with his feet behind him...said it was a pretty funny site!



Nothing major happened, Shayne got his feet under him in no time, but you have to realize...there's still ice and snow on the river, and it's fed by a glacier! It's really cold water, and Shayne just took a bunch of it down the front of his waders! He was soaked!! He said the only thing that didn't get wet was the hood of his hoodie! :) He claims he wasn't cold after the initial dunk, but I can't imagine how he wasn't! He did however get a good pic of his buddy's fish, and caught a couple of nice Steel Head of his own. That's my crazy husband! Man I love him!!! ;)




This last pic was of our trip to Homer last weekend. Shayne and I decided to go for a drive and take the dogs to the beach b/c it's been so nice. It was fun...ate at a great little restaurant...and enjoyed some much needed time outside.

We're Gonna Party...Like It's Your Birthday!!

Enough of the sad pics of me and all the hospital news! Life is good and getting better every day! And...

...Happy Birthday to me!! My birthday was actually Wednesday the 16th. I'm not going to admit yet how old I am...I'm still working on being TOTALLY ok with it! :) It was a pretty fun birthday. Shayne had to work the night before and the night of, along with teaching some classes the morning of...so he wasn't quite as involved as he'd like to have been on my birthday. However, he's promised me today is MY day, and I can do whatever I'd like. BUT...my birthday was not a lonely one. Have I mentioned that I have the greatest group of friends up here in Soldotna? Here's just another reason why I do...

I went to school, and told no one it was my birthday. I'm not a big, "Let's make a big deal out of my birthday" kinda girl. In fact, with 5 of the 6 of my own siblings being born in April, and one having a birthday the day before, birthday's were fun, but you didn't get to celebrate for long. So, I haven't ever really been HUGE into the whole birthday scene. However...I have a friend, Becky, who is very much into birthdays, and she was not about to let mine go unnoticed. So, with the help of some other very good friends, Darcy, Angela, and Sonia, they made my birthday a blast!

Darcy showed up at my school in the late morning with a candy bouquet that she and Becky had put together themselves. It was awesome!! Since she showed up during a break, all the kids saw her and then proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday" to me in what I can only describe as probably one of the worst, but most memorable renditions of the song I've ever heard! :)


After the kids found out it was my birthday, a couple of them proceeded to make me a birthday cake during the second period and lunch. It was a delicious cake! My third block class was feeling pretty lucky they were the kids getting to share in my birthday cake. I did have a few stragglers wander into my classroom when word got out that there was cake to be had! It was so much fun!! Gotta love the students in the background, posing! :)




Then...after Shayne went to work I met up with Becky (and her 3 kids) and Darcy (and 4 of her 5 kids) at Becky's house where she had cooked dinner. It was delicious! After that, we all went to Cold Stone's (our personal favorite!), and met Angela and Sonia there for ice cream. We sat around together and just laughed and had a very good time, before we realized it was 9:30, and a school night! So, we went our separate ways and headed home. Becky took pics of us at Cold Stone, so I'll post those as soon as she emails them to me. The bad part is that she isn't in them. So...I'm going to have to get a pic of her so I can post a pic of her smiling face as well!

I just have to say my friends made my birthday a very memorable one. I was sure it was going to be pretty crummy b/c Shayne had to work, and I would spend most of it by myself...which would have been fine, but no fun. However, I have some awesome friends that made sure I wasn't forgotten. How lucky am I?!

Hospital Pics...

Here are some pics while in the hospital. You can tell what a difference once day can have on recovery.

The first pic is from Wednesday night, about 6 hours post surgery. I still have oxygen on, a pain pump, iv catheter, and a foley catheter. Not my best shot. If I look miserable, it's b/c I am. :)

However, the next day was amazing. I had already been up and walking by the time Shayne took this picture.

I took the pics of Shayne from my hospital bed. He's watching a baseball or basketball game while tying flies. He was pretty content with his opportunity to do two of his most favorite things...at the same time! :) The nurses were always pretty interested in his fly-tying. They would come in and stare at him and his little table. Kinda funny.

This last picture is of the flowers I got from my "Cleaning Fairies". Becky, Darcy, and Angela went to our house while we were gone and cleaned it top to bottom! They also sent me these beautiful flowers, which were enjoyed twice, b/c our nurse gave them to another patient who was in need of some cheering up. And...they have been bringing over dinner for Shayne and I this week! I have some of the greatest friends!!

I went to work yesterday for a full day, and was exhausted and a little sore by the end!! Shayne drove me there and back, since I'm unable to drive for another few days. I took today off to recuperate, and hope to be able to go back at least one more day this week. I HATE WRITING SUB-PLANS!! Any good teacher will know what I'm talking about. So...my recovery is going well. I appreciate all the prayers and support from our wonderful families and friends.

Back in Alaska

We are back!! I'm so relieved. The rest of our hospital stay was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing. The nurses were wonderful, and especially intrigued by Shayne and his fly-tying. :) I was up and moving on Friday, which was nice. We explored the hospital a bit, and I did some serious walking...at least for me at this point! However, I paid for it on Saturday...I was so exhausted! I finally got out of bed to shower around 11:00, because they said I had been discharged. It was nice to be out of the hospital, but the rest of the day proved to be long.

We had to sit in the airport for about 5 hours, b/c our flight didn't leave until the evening, and then it was a 6 hour nonstop back to Anchorage. Let's just say it wasn't my most favorite flight. I was pretty miserable. Shayne finally convinced me to take some Vicodin, and about an hour after taking it I slept for nearly 1 1/2 hours, without moving. I hate taking the narcotics...I'm convinced our baby is going to be a "crack-baby"! :) However, Shayne says the kids going to be more damaged from my lack of sleep and pain, than it being a little medicated. Any who...we got into Anchorage around 10:30pm and stayed with Kaye and Jared.

Needless to say that such a long day Saturday wiped me out on Sunday. I was pretty much miserable the whole day. It's one thing to deal with the recovery of regular abdominal surgery, but combine it with being pregnant...it's not so much fun. My lack of sleep has been making me sick again, which reduces my appetite, which makes me sick. When I finally do take any pain meds, they make me sick and loopy too, and I hate it. So yesterday wasn't my best day. Shayne and I decided to stay another night, b/c I wasn't ready to drive 3 hours in a car back to Soldotna. So I worked on sub-plans, and actually slept last night! I feel better today, than I've felt in about 2-3 days. Now, I just hope I keep feeling better each day.

So....that's my update. I just have to say, Shayne has been absolutely amazing through this whole ordeal. He has struggled with not having control over the situation, and helping me feel better, but he has handled it well. He has waited on me hand & foot, and is very aware of things I might need before I need them. And he does all of this without complaining. He tells me I'm the best patient he's ever had! :) I tell him he's supposed to say that! He seriously was my angel while in the hospital as well. My first night there was a terrible night. It would have been much worse had he not been there. Not only was he there as emotional support as my husband, but he was there as my own personal nurse as well. That in and of itself was a HUGE blessing. I can not imagine having gone through that without him. He has made my recovery easier...even if he doesn't think so. I'm extremely lucky I have him in my life...I love him more than anything in the world!!

Ok...we will be driving home this afternoon, and then I'll post some pics of our hospital stay. They aren't the best of me...but hey, who looks good in a hospital gown?!

Chicago, Day 2

Guess what? We're still here and alive, all three of us. The surgery went well, the doc came in this am around 1100 and explained the procedure and the outcome to an alert pepper instead of a foggy one as was the case yesterday. She didn't sleep very well as she was a little agitated from the catheter and just not feeling well from the anesthetic. She was a little nauseated a few times. Luckily the nurse in the room took care of business to prevent any vomiting and serious pain that would have occurred. We went back for another sonogram today and were able to see the baby really well, he was a little casual as compared to yesterday as he had a little percocet on board thanks to mom's not feeling very well. It was kicking around and moving just like yesterday only slower. The band was in a great place as the doc said it was so that is well.

Today we've just been hanging out in the room other than the sonogram that took us about 1.5 hrs to complete due to waiting in the hall to get into the sono room then waiting to come back from the room. So pepper was pretty wiped out after that so after another percocet she ate her lunch then took a little nap for her recovery. Man the food here is outrageous. expensive and average. wish i could cook for myself.

Anyway, tonight I've been tying a few flies, watching a little basketball, and baseball. We went for Pepper's first walk tonight. She made it about 400 ft without having any problems. just a little winded when we got back to the room. She's feeling much better today, hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to go exploring campus and be able to get out of the hospital room, if it's not raining we'll go outside. We're definitely coming back to Chicago to visit another day when we can have more time to play and see the sites.

Well, not much else happening here so I'll sign off and call it a night, well, after I tie a few more flies!!

Chicago 1st day

Hey y'all, this is Shayne writing on the blog for once. Pepper is behind me in her hospital bed. She is doing well, the surgery went a little longer than anticipated but the results were what we wanted. The cerclage was place in the right position and Dr. Haney said that the procedure went well. There were a few wrenches thrown into the mess due to Pepper's past history but they were able to troubleshoot those challenges without too much difficulty. All is good here, the people here are very nice, the hospital is very large, each of them, there are 4. They treated Pepper as somewhat of a celebrity due to us being from Alaska. There are some interesting views regarding Alaska here and I promise I haven't laughed at the questions that have been posed.

The flight in was pretty good with both Pepper and I unable to get much sleep. There was a little bit of anxiety involved with the arrival to the hospital. We took the Blue line-train into downtown and then caught a cab from downtown to the hospital. Everyone that we talked with prior to coming warned us about not really going off campus by ourselves. Won't be a problem for me. Got plenty of baseball on TV and I brought my Fly Tying vice to pass the time.

So thanks for all of the love, support, and everything else that all of you have given to us. We are deeply humbled and gracious for everything done on our behalf. Thanks again, I'll post again tomorrow.