Especially for you, Beth!

Below are two pics of me, one taken at Mardi Gras last year, and one taken this morning.

I was very self-conscious for years, so pictures of me are rare, but we found a great 3/4 view to show you a comparison. I'm still swollen, and will not see the final results until at least 6 months from now, but...

Yup, it was definitely worth the trouble.

So, what's goin' on?

Since we're all adults here, I'll let you on to what's been going on with me since about a week and a half ago.

There's quite a few people who are close to me, that know that I've waited years to have elective surgery to remove excess tissue off of my chest. The reduction was on Thursday, March 3rd.

As for the surgery itself, it was more of a comfort issue than one of vanity. Since Gabe was born, things weren't at all like they had been, and with Sarah coming along, things only got worse. I'd tried to lose lots of weight to try to correct the issue, but then I looked even more ridiculous (kinda like Dolly Parton). I was uncomfortable; I had a list of reasons on why I should get it done. My doctors agreed. It was obvious that I needed surgical intervention.

It was an out-patient type of thing, and I felt just a little sore after the procedure. On Friday, I went into the doctors office to have the drains (yuck, I know) pulled. And that's when things started to get a little crazy...

By dinnertime, I felt really tired and shaky. Phillip had cooked a delicious roast, but all I could do was pick at my food, and then leave the table to rest in bed. Something didn't seem right, but I'd never had surgery before, so I wasn't sure what was going on. By around 9 pm, I was feeling some major discomfort, so I took two Percocet and hoped for the best. Throughout the night, I had trouble sleeping because of the swelling on my right side, and I was getting a bit scared because my heart was racing.

When Phillip woke up on Saturday morning, I felt nauseous. I went into the bathroom and my face and lips were snow white. By then, I knew something was really wrong. I went back into our room, asked Phillip to check things out on my right side, and when he went to touch the area to get a better look, I nearly fainted. It wasn't from pain though; it was almost like a ripple effect on a pond (no blood getting to the brain?). You coulda plucked me, and I would've fallen right over.

To make a long story short, I ended up in the hospital a couple of hours later for emergency surgery to remove a 300 cc (about the size of an orange?) hematoma that had developed on my right side. Now, while this can be expected, it doesn't happen very often. The doctor said that this is only the second time that something like this has happened to him. He told me as we went into the OR that he may have to give me a unit of blood, and at that point, I didn't care. I looked over at the anesthesiologist and asked her to hurry....KNOCK ME OUT! I spent the night in the hospital, for just in case...

So, that's why I haven't been on here lately. I'm finally started to feel a little better. Two surgeries in two days wiped me completely out. All in all, I'm glad that I did it. A friend of mine says that I look like a completely different person; I'll take that.

Cabin fever is really starting to get to me. The weather is beautiful outside, and there's lots to do in Fairbanks this weekend. I wanna go outside and play!

On the bright side, I have a great support system out here. I'm fortunate to have some close friends that I can call if I need to, but except for this past Thursday, when he had to go back to work, Phillip has been by my side through all of it. I must give him lots of credit for taking care of me, the house, and the kids while I'm down. He makes a great nurse.

For the family...

This was taken earlier today, while Sarah was at gymnastics.

If you could have only heard those little squeals in person...

I've posted more pics from this morning in the "Our Story in Pictures" album (photo collection, to your right, Dad).

Enjoy!

Playing Paparazzi with Sarah Palin, and the Iron Dog 2011

Yesterday, we went into downtown Fairbanks to get in on some of the Iron Dog 2011 action. Before the Grande Finale, the Tired Iron 2011 (races with antique snow machines, things for the kids to do,etc.) was doing it's thing.

Gabe was so excited to do the Kid-a-Pult. He'd been talking about doing it for a couple of weeks.


We put Sarah in a bucket, but I call her a "dud", because she didn't go very far; they didn't want to give her whiplash, so they didn't pull the band back too much.

After the kids had fun for a while, we realized that we needed to go inside for a bit to warm up (it was near zero in temp), so Phil and the kids went off to get hot chocolate while I went to a nearby favorite store to get some more hats, mittens, etc.

I'd forgotten to put some items in our "warm extras bag". Darnit, where's that matching mitten?!

When we got back to the River, I set up camp on the foot bridge to try to get pictures of the winners of the race as they came in. Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, was racing. As I was standing there, and waiting, the lady next to me started making small talk, and I asked if there had been a Sarah Palin sighting. The lady next to her then said, "I don't know where she is, but she'd better get here!", then looked at us and whispered, "I'm her Mom.". No doubt, it was because of the resemblance and the voice! We talked to her for a small while, and in conversation, after I mentioned the Kate Gosselin episode of "Sarah Palin's Alaska", Mom rolled her eyes and said "What a Loon!".

Now as all this is going on, I text Phillip down below to tell him that the lady next to me was Sarah's Mom. And while we were talking (Mom, the other lady, and I), we saw Sarah's Dad and in a joint effort tried to call out to him and get his attention (for Mom, she wanted him to know where on the bridge she was). I look down a little later at Phillip, and he waves at me and points...he'd been talking to SP's Dad!

You may be thinking "What luck. What are the chances?". At this time in the day, there was a crowd, but it was still small enough. Get it? People began to trickle in as the finish got closer, which was about 1 hr-45 minutes after I first talked to Mom.

To make a long story short, I say goodbye to the two ladies (Mom and the other), and make my way to the finish line and Phillip/Sarah's Dad so that I could take better pics of the finish.

Phillip had a better perspective from where he was, so I figured that I'd get better pictures...of the winners...and of Sarah, who had by then made her appearance. While we were talking to Mom, I think she called Sarah to tell her that she'd better get out to the finish or she'd miss it (I could hear her end of the phone conversation).

So, anyway...here's a picture below of the Winners of the Iron Dog 2001 race. And a, kind of long video, of Sarah, Piper Palin, and Todd Palin's team mate's wife waiting for their team to come in 2nd.

All in all, it was quite a fun and interesting day. You can see more pictures of the day, and of course, lots of Mrs. Palin, if you go to the Alaska album in Photo Collections. Oh, and the guy standing behind me said "She's a lot hotter in person.". I have to agree, she is tiny...and quite pretty.




What you are seeing in the video is everyone waiting for the 2nd place team (Todd Palin and team mate) to arrive. We'd been out all day, and I had to take off a glove to operate my camera, so my fingers were really not feeling like normal fingers should; I needed to put my glove back on, and we all needed to get to some place warm.

Proverb.

"May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart."
- Eskimo Proverb

Have a great day everyone!

Sarah wanted to tell...

...you that her Mommy posted some more pics on the Alaska bound album.




PS. Okay, the picture doesn't exactly go with the words, but I had to post it anyway. I don't know where she gets it from. Honestly. Okay, I fib.

The great snowfall of 2011!

We got over 18 inches of snowfall in 48 hours. I think they said that records have been broken.

My neighbor called me yesterday wanting to know if we had a snow blower, because she couldn't get out of her garage. She said that she's never experienced this in all of the time that she's lived in Alaska. Luckily, we have Phil's 4x4 to use for in travel in times like this. Because I'm afraid to try to get my car out of our garage.

I'm about to go outside and get busy with a snow shovel.

Phillip's flights have been canceled for today, because they can't get the aircraft out of the hangars. And he's on Craigslist as I type, looking for a used snow blower.

We have two shovels. I'm just sayin'.

Umm...scratch that. He just bought one, and I'm darn glad for it!

I think that one of the main reasons...

...why we did Science Fair projects in school, is so that we could teach our own kids how to do it when their time came.

Maybe it's the only reason.

Well! In that case, in the words of my husband, "This vicious cycle has to end!".