I'm Baaa-aaack

We finally got our internet connection back up tonight at 6:00pm and it feels great to be connected with the world again! For those of us who are just a little phone shy, the internet and e-mail really are our only link with the outside world.

We've been in our new house for almost two weeks now and I must say that we love it here! Aside from all of the space (our entire family of four can be in the kitchen at the same time now without stepping on each other... or at least we could if we didn't have two refrigerators!), it is so wonderful to just step outside and be in your backyard to play. No more multiple trips hauling toys and tots up and down stairs to play outside in dog-poop infested apartment grass... we have our own dog-poop-free grass right outside our door!!!! :) We had a picnic on the patio last Friday for lunch and it was so fun; something we've never been able to do before. Sure, we had a patio at our apartment, but I never let the kids play out there because I was so paranoid about one of them figuring out how to climb through or over the rails and falling two floors to the ground. (Or at the very least, that toys would fall two floors to the ground and yours truly would be playing fetch all afternoon!) Margaret's sleeping habits have improved now that they have their own rooms; no more in and out with putting Steven down and him getting up in the middle of the night. Steven's sleeping habits have taken a nose-dive, however, unless you count sleeping with us every night at the ripe old age of 3 as healthy! I had taken off work for the end of May to move and get settled and just started back on Monday... that was painful (in more ways than one!)

We're really breaking in the new place with lots of sickness and health issues. Steven had a 24-hour virus on Memorial Day and spent the entire day laying in bed or on the couch with really shallow breathing and a high temp. The worst part was that our air wasn't working properly so it was burning up in our house. Fortunately, he woke up Tuesday morning just as chatty as ever and ready to play, so I didn't end up taking him in. Meanwhile, I suffered from three gallstone attacks last week, the most I've ever had in such a short period of time. The first one was during my first Relief Society in the new ward, so I completely missed out on that. It was sharp and very painful and I was on the floor in the bathroom for 45 minutes. The next one was on Tuesday and it lasted about 5 hours. It was a dull, constant pain with moments of sharp pain mixed in. Finally, when the kids started waking up from their naps and I knew that I couldn't take care of them, I called my mom and asked her if she would come over and take care of the kids while I coped. She was such a lifesaver. Thanks, mom! I couldn't have made it through the day without you! My most recent attack was on Saturday, during John's piano recital. I stayed home, fortunately, because I had felt it coming on for several hours and when it finally hit hard, I had to call mom again. Sorry you didn't get to see Andy play in the recital, mom, but thanks again! I love you!

As many of you know, John is self-employed so we don't get group insurance. I can get private insurance, but they won't cover anything to do with my gallbladder or digestive system while I have this problem... ever. So we've been saving up to pay for the surgery ourselves. Going off of the bill that my friend, Bethanne showed me from her surgery a year ago we were expecting to pay several thousands of dollars for treatment. I finally met with a specialist on Thursday just to make sure that surgery was necessary (and because I'd been having so many recent attacks) and we were pleasantly surprised to find that everything would cost a lot less than we had budgeted. So we're planning on surgery around the end of the summer and praying and fasting that I won't have too many attacks until then.

My most recent problem has been very irritating and depressing: poison ivy. I was out pulling weeds in our front garden patch and came across a huge bush of it. Fortunately for me, I had gloves on, but I still managed to touch it somehow. As some of you may remember, I have ALWAYS been highly allergic to the stuff to the point that doctor's were concerned about it getting into my bloodstream once because I had it so bad. Here's what it looks like today after two doses of steroid cream:

The darn stuff is on my right arm right below my wrist, which is highly inconvenient. It's very hard to pick up Margaret and do anything with her because I don't want her to touch it. I hate cooking or doing laundry or anything because I feel like I'm going to contaminate the whole house, even though I know it's not contagious right now (if I take the proper precautions.) Anyway, I hate poison ivy and I'm so depressed right now; I feel like a leper. Does anyone know of a river that I can go and bathe in to take this away? :)