Sheet Rock Party

Over St. Patrick's Day, Randy invited Matt and the boys up to their house to help him put up sheet rock in his basement. Randy is the most motivated person that I know. He is always doing something, and he is so good at finding good help. Hence his brothers. So we drove up Friday after work and the whole night was all planned out. We went to get appetizers AKA sushi and went to Chilis for dinner and Kneaders for dessert. I'm pretty sure we were all stuffed by the time we got home. We played with cute baby Reagan for a while:





Reagan's cute shoes and painted toenails! Love it!


Then we sat around and everyone played that drawing game on their phones. Here is the proof:


Saturday was a work day... for the boys. The girls hung out and talked, watched the babies, took the kids on a St. Patrick's Day parade around the house, etc. Sometimes there are advantages to being a girl...

Claire played with Rudy... sometimes I wonder if dogs get tired playing with kids


The kids after their parade


Brad's messy face from Aunt Kamie's present!


Claire's messy face...


Once the boys were done, we spent the rest of the day messing around with the boys and the kids:

Harrison and Reagan (I don't know why this is sideways)


Harrison watching TV- so enthralled!


Brad riding his motorcycle!

Brad's 8th Birthday!

Matt and I went up to Richmond last weekend to celebrate Brad's 8th birthday and see him get baptized! It was a very special morning, because not only was Brad baptized on his birthday, but baby Harrison was also blessed. After the baptism and blessing, we went over to Richmond city hall for Brad's birthday luncheon. Brad received all kinds of presents, but the best one was from Randy and Jenny- his first dirt bike! He was in awe and couldn't believe it was really for him. He immediately got all dressed up in his gear and started telling everyone he was going to ride it home. The boys were probably more excited than Brad was- they immediately took it outside and got it started up. Brad was not able to ride it home as he was unable to even start the bike... I'm sure he'll learn soon!



Reagan eating chocolate cake


After the party, we headed over to Randy and Jenny's for some hanging out. We ended up going tubing/sledding with everyone. We didn't have any snow clothes, so I sat in the car and chatted with Jenny and Kendra, and Matt braved the hill in his jeans. It was a good thing he went out there, because when Diet rolled the four-wheeler Matt had to help roll it back over! I was worried Todd would have a heart attack, but somehow he survived.

Harrison's cute snow hat!


Reagan's snow suit and hat!


Harrison in the car with the women


Matt and Randy having a moment on the sled... I'm pretty sure they made it like 10 yards before crashing that tiny sled!


For my young women lesson, I was making a video of people answering the questions "what makes your mom a good mom" and "what makes your wife a good wife"? When I asked Claire why Jenny is such a good mom, she said...



Way to go Jenny! I'll remember that when I have kids!

Reagan also is starting to make a lot of noise! It is so fun to listen to her "talking"

Actually Doing Something

It feels like a while since I blogged something normal, like something that Matt and I have done for fun. We really do fun stuff! Like last week, Randy had a training in Salt Lake and couldn't handle doing nothing, so we went to dinner at Goodwood and then went up to Lance and Kendra's house to play some Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Just Dance on the Kinect! I forgot how much I like Guitar Hero. It reminds me of college... staying up late and playing until your fingers are stiff and you can't separate the colors... good times.

The boys were definitely the best at Rock Band.



Rudy would stand behind you when you were standing to play the guitar and his tail would whop you on the leg. I turned around to smack Matt every time, but it wasn't Matt!


Kamie was at work, so Kendra and I played with Reagan

Brad's Basketball Game

Before all the craziness started with my surgery and disease, Matt and I went up to Logan to watch Brad play basketball. Randy is coaching his team this year and it was so much fun! Brad is getting better and better. We love spending time with the kids and Randy and Jenny of course!

Passing the ball in was always difficult... who should he pass it to?


Harrison did so well in the loud gym! I got to hold him the whole game!


Uncle Matt taught Claire how to dunk!

Incision Pictures

I have been asking Matt to take pictures of my incision on my head every once in a while so I can see for myself what it looks like. Here are all those pictures now that this is all over!

The day after my surgery (January 11)


The day my staples came out at the doctor's office (January 20)


The day my staples came out- after cleaning it up (January 20)


About a week after my staples came out (End of January)


About a week ago (Beginning of February)


As you can see, it is healing up really well and my hair is growing back. I still feel a little bruising around the incision, but other than that it is doing great!

MS Treatment

I apologize for not posting sooner. I guess I figured that things have settled down and that everyone knew what was going on... Here is the update for those of you who I haven't seen: My doctor has started me on a treatment called Avonex. It is an intramuscular injection that I give myself once a week. I can inject in my thigh, or Matt or my mom can inject in my shoulder (not that that will ever happen!). This treatment does NOT treat my symptoms, which means that it will not directly improve the numbness in my body. It treats the progression of the disease and lengthens the amount of time between relapses. Once the damage is done in the nervous system (in my case, in my brain), it will stay damaged, which is why we cannot "fix" the damage. There are other types of treatment: steroid treatment is used to speed up the healing process if you are having severe symptoms-this is not used often as it is not good for your body, or they will also do specific treatments for symptoms. My symptoms (numbness) are considered "minor" and not severe enough to treat. Compared to other symptoms, I have the good end of the deal for sure.

My first injection was preceded by a training with a nurse who showed me how to do everything and helped me practice and eventually do the injection. I did my first injection in my numb leg and didn't feel a thing. Three hours later I started feeling achy and could tell my temperature was rising. About two hours after that, I definitely had a fever. I went to bed at that point, after taking a sleeping pill, and had an awful night fighting the fever and trying to stay asleep. I woke up the next morning feeling fine.

My second injection went much better. I waited until about 7:00 to give myself the shot and I pumped a ton of water into my body. Like hundreds of ounces of water, gatorade and propel before and after my shot. We had friends over, and when they left around 10:00, I still wasn't really feeling anything. At 10:30 I took some Nyquil, which helps me sleep better than the other medicine I took last week, and went to bed at 11:00 still feeling pretty good. I slept fine and woke up feeling good! I was pretty tired the next day, but what a difference!

My shot and the two needles. I of course only use one needle, but I have a prescription needle that is different than the one it comes with...


My needle is the smaller of the two. My doctor prescribed it for me. It is 1/4 inch shorter and a bit thinner than the other needle.

Normal... which is weird

According to my neurologist, all my tests came back normal... which is weird. I guess we always knew that I am "special." Usually MS patients have more than one lesion- I just have one huge lesion in my brain (which is why they thought it was a tumor), putting me in the 1% of "special" MS patients. We are going to get started on treatment, which means I will be giving myself a shot once a week, as soon as everything gets cleared through my insurance and we get our financial aid set up. It is so nice to finally have some answers and a plan.

I love plans.