Seriously???

Jordan = positive for strep throat

Lucy = positive for strep throat

Laura =positive for strep throat, Guttate Psoriasis back in full force

{blah}

Twenty Six...

Yesterday was a perfect birthday. Lucy slept until 10:00, so I got to sleep until 9:00.

My birthday festivities started with a great lunch at CPK with good friends. After lunch we went to the much anticipated movie, 'Harry Potter 7". So good.

After the movie, Jordan and I did a little shopping and then met up with my family at my favorite restaurant--Benihana!!

After dinner we headed home for some raspberry almond torte from Market Street Grill.

I got all sorts of great presents including a new purse, black cowgirl boots, the new Jimmy Eat World CD, some new clothes, a salad bowl that I've been admiring for years, and some earrings.

Oh, how I love my birthday. Thanks everyone!!

Obsessed....

Lucy has a new obsession. She is completely and totally in love with 101 Dalmatians. Every morning when she wakes up she yells, "Doggy, doggy, doggy, woof, woof, doggy, woof, woof!!" until we put it on for her. If we let her, she would sit in our living room and watch the "doggy movie" all day long. Now, I must admit that I love that she'll sit and watch something so I can get a few chores done around the house, but seriously....101 Dalmatians?? I didn't even love this movie as a kid. I never thought I'd see the day that I could quote every line of 101 Dalmatians verbatim. Welcome to parenting I guess.

Watching "doggies" at 6:00 AM with tired mommy.

Just munching an apple while watching "doggies".

Watching "doggies" while shopping at Park City.

Watching "doggies" at 6:30 this morning with daddy. He was just thrilled.

A Fresh Perspective...

It's Monday, and I'm feeling better about life. I'm no longer throwing up, so I think I only had the 24 hour bug. I'm actually feeling very grateful righ now. I asked Jordan to give me a blessing, and I can't even begin to express how grateful I am for the priesthood. He promised me in the blessing (among other things) that I would find comfort in the scriptures. Today I have been catching up on Personal Progress (I am the Beehive Advisor in my ward), specifically on the value of Divine Nature. Part of the value experience is to read a list of scriptures that mention divine qualities. Some of the qualities included patience, long-suffering, charity, compassion, virtue, and enduring to the end. As I read these qualities, I asked myself, "What am I learning from my current health challenges? Am I cultivating divine qualities or impeding my eternal progress with my poor attitude?" I have been so busy feeling sorry for myself that I have looked past all the beautiful blessings in my life. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that blesses me with challenges so I can stretch, grow, and learn to rely on Him daily. I am determined to change my attitude and find happiness despite my less-than-ideal circumstances. You heard me.

Welcome to Whine-Fest...

Remember how I'm 25 and in the "prime" of my life? I don't feel 25. I feel about 75. Let me explain. My little family of three somehow manages to have all sorts of weird/rare medical things happen to us. In order to do whine-fest justice, I need to start back in July of 2006.

-July 2006: After being married only two months, Jordan is on a swing that goes out over a ravine. The swing breaks, Jordan falls 65 feet and by the grace of God survives (albeit with a broken back, ribs, shoulder, and sternum. Oh, and he managed to completely scalp himself). One ambulance ride and hospital stay later and we end up living in my parent's house up to our eyeballs in debt.

-July 2009: We find out that our little baby in utero is in distress. After nine months of horrible bilateral sciatic pain, I end up having an emergency c-section three weeks before Lucy is due.

-May 2010: Lucy falls off the bed with a comb in her mouth. The comb punctures the back of her throat ending up in a four-day hospital stay. Just finished paying this one off.

-October/November 2010: The real fun begins for me. It all starts with a horrible case of strep throat. All three of us get sick and end up on anti-biotics. About a week later I wake up with an odd, itchy rash on my chest and face. The rash begins to spread. Two days later I wake up, go to walk to the bathroom and my right foot hurts so badly I can barely walk. I have no logical explanation as to why my foot hurts. I give in after four days of pain and finally go to see a podiatrist. There I find out that I have an extra bone in my foot, and that the tendon running underneath it is horribly inflamed (aka tendonitis). The podiatrist puts me in a bulky ankle brace and prescribes me steroids and anti-inflammatories. In the meantime my rash has spread from my chest and face to my scalp, behind my ears, inside my ears, my arms, my stomach, my back, my legs, and it's HORRIBLY itchy. I go to see a dermatologist thinking I'm having an allergic reaction to something. "Have you had strep recently?", she asks. "Yes," I respond. "Well, I don't have great news for you then." Apparently I have a rare form of strep-induced or Guttate Psoriasis. It is an autoimmune disorder that occurs in young adults after a bad strep infection. The dermatologist then informs me that there is a possibility that this rash could go away in the next 4-6 weeks, or it could develop into Plaque Psoriasis--a lifelong, awful skin condition. She then cracks open her textbook and shows me pictures of people who are horribly disfigured by Plaque Psoriasis. "But don't freak out," she says. Right. She then prescibes 5 creams/ointments/serums that I'm supposed to put on everyday and tells me to go tanning 1-2 times/week because UVB rays are supposed to help Guttate Psoriasis. I leave the appointment feeling completely discouraged. In the meantime I'm taking the steroids for my foot which result in nasty heartburn and stomach problems. Also, the anti-biotics I took for the strep have left me with a yeast infection and diarrhea. Well, I decide to get a second opinion about my Guttate Psoriasis, so I go to a dermatologist in Salt Lake. He tells me that I definitely have Guttate Psoriasis, but that he has rarely seen it turn into Plaque Psoriasis. Whew. However, he tells me that I'm an unusual case, because the rash on my face does not match the rash on the rest of my body. He then prescribes MORE anti-biotics and MORE steroids, which will further screw up my digestive tract. Now, I would love to go ahead and take these pills, but, unfortunately there is more trouble in River City. I woke up this morning and I have some form of the flu. I have been puking all morning and feeling really sorry for myself. I have already spent 200 dollars in CO-PAYS in the last 30 days. Now would be a good time for someone to take me down to the vet and have me put to sleep. How's that for whiny?

Boo!!

Happy Halloween!! Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, so I was excited for Lucy to go trick-or-treating this year. We have been practicing saying "trick-or-treat" all month and reading all sorts of fun Halloween books in preparation. We started our Halloween festivities by carving pumpkins while watching our traditional Halloween movies including such classics as, "Disney's Halloween Treat", "Halloween Haunts", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", and "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". My mom made some great chili and homemade root beer and it was a great afternoon. Afterwards we went to Jordan's parent's for "mummy dogs" and then we were out the door to go trick-or-treating. We had great plans of having Lucy take a late afternoon nap so she would be all ready for the evening's festivities, but she pooped herself awake and ended up not sleeping. The result was that she was SUPREMELY grumpy while trick-or-treating. Oh well, she looked adorable in her ladybug costume.

Grandma's root beer brew

Carving her first pumpkin.

I guess she thought that you were supposed to eat the pumpkin.

Jordan and his Bug.

I dressed up as a ladybug for part of the night.

Look at that cute ladybug bum.

Jordan's pumpkin

My much cooler pumpkin

Posing with her superhero cousins. This was about the point she started to completely fall apart.

Trick or treat!!

It's like they say. "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Cornbelly's

On Friday Jordan, Lucy and I headed to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. What a fun place! They have so many great things for kids to do.

Lucy immediately found the pumpkins.

One big ole' rocking chair

They had a short train ride through the corn. Lucy stood up in the front of the cart and was in heaven.

Watching the singing chicken show.

The corn maze was my favorite part. We may or may not have cheated to find our way out.

One Long October Post...

Oh my. So much to write about. I'll begin on Thursday, October 7th. I woke up about 2:30 in the morning and thought I was possibly dying. My throat hurt so badly I couldn't swallow and I had muscle aches that were literally painful. The next morning I sat on the floor of the doctor's office, shaking with my head between my knees. She did a strep test and surprise.....I had a horrible case of strep throat. For the next three days and nights I stayed in bed spitting into a cup because I couldn't swallow my own spit. Yuck. Thank goodness for antibiotics!! On Saturday, Erin and the kids came into town from Minnesota, and Mike followed on Sunday. My dad has a time-share at the Marriott Mountainside Resort in Park City, so he booked two condos for the week. We all headed up on Sunday afternoon. It was so fun! We watched movies, shopped at the outlets, rode the alpine slides/coaster, swam, hot tubbed, ate great food, and played cards. It was so nice to have our own rooms, so we had somewhere for Lucy to nap. I was still recovering from my strep so I laid low for the first couple of days we were there. Unfortunately, Lucy, Jordan, my dad, and my nephew, Noah, all came down with strep as well. However, everyone's doctors just prescribed them antibiotics when they found out I had been sick with strep, so no one got really sick.

Packing for Park City

Hanging out at the condo.

This turned out to be Lucy's favorite spot.

Abbie and Landon

Scott, Rach, and Mike on the Alpine Slide

Lucy eating a popsicle to soothe her sore throat.

One tough dude.

Wednesday was Jordan's 26th birthday. Here he is posing with his birthday brownie goulash. We ended up celebrating Jordan's birthday over the course of the week. More of a birthday season, if you will. Festivities included attending a pre-season Jazz game (in his new D-Will jersey), riding the alpine slide/coaster, going to dinner at Squatters, shopping at the outlets, and water volleyball. Happy Birthday Babe!

Once again, I had a hankering to make some caramel apples. This go around went much more smoothly. We ended up snacking on caramel apples for the rest of the week. Not so good on the waistline, but certainly good for the soul.

Cousin bathtub shot!

All snuggie in their jammies.

We got home from the condo on Friday afternoon. The next night we all went to the Real vs. FC Dallas game at Rio Tinto Stadium. It was a great game!

The Minnesota Five left for home on Sunday. The next night we went to Pack's Pumpkin Farm to pick out our pumpkins. Lucy went crazy over the pumpkins. She is walking like crazy now and had a grand time running from pumpkin to pumpkin.

Well, there's my post. It's been a fun week.