The One With My Little Easter Bunny

Happy Easter!

The One Where I'm A WAHM

Well, I ended up getting a stay at home job. It's a temporary (through the fall, weather pending) receptionist/scheduler job. I'm still training (due to the rainy weather). I am supposed to be available (by phone and internet) for ten hours a day, and every other Saturday. Supposedly the phones ring off the hook in the height of Summer.

I had a really hard time with it the first week or so. I have a lot on my plate already (who knew being a stay at home mom would be such a busy job), so I was super nervous.

I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to give Paige the attention she needed.
I was worried it would cause stress on my relationship with Rick.
I was worried that the house would be even messier than it already is (only ALL of the time).
I was worried I wouldn't learn everything I needed to for this job.
I was worried that I wouldn't be able to take Paige swimming or to the zoo (or other fun summer activities now that she is getting older).
I was worried that I would be jealous of all of the other SAHMs that get to do fun things with their kids.
I was worried that I had just lost my freedom.

(I'm a worry wart... can you tell?) :)

I expressed my worries to Rick (I may or may not have had a break down), and he gave me a blessing. It was such a special blessing, just what I needed. I now know, that even though it's not something I necessarily am excited about doing, it is something that God has provided for us. It is just temporary, and I am so happy that I can help take some of the burden of providing for our family off of Rick's shoulders for a few months.

I am so very grateful to have a husband who is worthy to hold the priesthood. Some of you may know that there was a brief time in my life when I did not have the priesthood in my home. There was an emptiness inside of me during that time. I knew that something was missing and that I wasn't as happy as I knew I could be. I won't go into details, but I am just so grateful for Rick.

On a very random side note, I just called the insurance, and found out that Paige has met her out of pocket, so we won't have to pay anything else for her until July. Yay! Also, we are $1,000 away from meeting our family out of pocket. Think we can make it? ;)

Another One With An Update

Sorry for another boring post. People keep asking about Paige, and this is the best way to get the word out.

We had her follow up appointment with Dr. Hoffman yesterday. As of right now, it seems she won't need any more eye muscle surgeries which is probably the worst of all of the surgeries we've had to consider. We are very happy about that. We will, though, still need an eye lid lift surgery as of how things look right now. Her eyes are still tearing, after having the tear duct probe twice. I am not sure what we will do for that, though. We have another appointment in 4 weeks to just make sure everything is going as well as it seems. Dr. Hoffman has been really great to work with.

I also had an appointment this week, and it seems there is a high chance I will need surgery also.

What are the chances that all 3 of us need surgery within a few months of each other??

I have had 8 sinus infections within the past year and a half, so I finally decided enough is enough. I have loved my doctor, and we are trying to see if medicine will help enough that I will not need surgery, but she thinks surgery will be in the books for me. Honestly, I am happy to try anything, even if it means surgery. Most days it takes all I have to stay awake, and I just found out that is because of my chronic infections. I am so happy that there are options and that there is help out there for us.

Our insurance is up at the end of June (it lasted a year and a half this time...), so our goal is to have all of our surgeries done by then. We're close to meeting our out of pocket deductible :)

After going to both of our appointments this week I am very optimistic, even if it means surgeries, it will also mean that things will be better in the near future. I am so grateful for insurance & smart doctors!

The One Where She Does Tricks

Paige has learned so many fun new things lately. It's been so much fun. I love this age.

I took this picture the day after her surgery. She's showing you where her head is. She's such a little smarty pants. :)


This video sums a good chunk of them up.

The One Where She Had Her Surgery Already!

Last time I blogged, I said that Paige's surgery was scheduled for the end of April. Good news, they had a cancellation so they bumped us up to this past Monday. So, she had her first official surgery already.

This time, they redid the tear duct probe (this time with a bigger balloon... hoping that this time will be the last time) and an eye muscle surgery. They detached a muscle behind both eyes and reattached it, in hopes that it would help her to move her eyeballs up and down, and open her eye lid openings.

Her surgery was scheduled for 2:30 this time, so she was ready to eat and sleep by the time we were checking in and getting her checked out. The camera came in handy then, to distract her for a minute.




I think this picture sums up how she feels about her surgery...


The surgery was a pretty big deal. It took about an hour and a half (we were in the waiting room longer than most of the other parents). She, of course, really didn't like coming out of anesthesia, but eventually it wore off.


She has been doing so much better than I thought she would. I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I figured it would take her a week or so to get to the point where she is today. Each day she looks better and better, and each day her eye openings open a tiny bit more too. She still has goopy and bloodshot eyes, but other than that, doesn't look all that different.

I took these pictures yesterday (one day after surgery)...


She's not super thrilled about life, but I sure was thrilled that she was doing so well.

This picture isn't a good picture at all of her, but I had to show it because I FINALLY got a picture where her teeth were peeking through! She never shows them (especially in pictures).


We have a follow up appointment at the end of the month to go over things with the doctor. There's a chance she will still need more surgeries (2 or more), but so far I am optimistic since her eye openings are opening this soon.

Thanks so much for the calls, texts, and messages again. We are so lucky to have such a great support system around us.