January 30, 2014

The saga of the hand (WARNING: GRUESOME MATERIAL AHEAD!!!)

So, every 6 months or so, Che' and I decide to get together to make freezer meals. Freezer meals make everyone's lives easier and we have the art down to a science. We prep for a week: Pick our meals, make a list for groceries (we quadruple every meal so that she ends up with 2 and I end up with 2), divide the shopping, prep the meat ahead of time and prep/cut the veggies ahead of time. Then on the day of, we whip together meals like nobody's business and end up with a freezer full each (this time we ended up with over 100 meals- so 50 each. Yeah, it's awesome).

Everything has always gone off without a hitch....until this time.
Dun, Dun, Dun....

We were already behind for the day, so we were trying to hurry along. I was opening a can of pineapple and  couldn't quite get the lid to come all the way off with our crappy can opener. So instead of trying to get it with the can opener or even to open it by sticking a spoon in there or something, I stuck my hand in to pull up on the lid. You know you have done this before-- and so have I a million times without consequences. However, this can lid was stubborn and I said to Che', "I am going to cut myself." Not even two seconds later, there was blood gushing everywhere. I had ripped through the skin of four of my fingers on my left hand- every finger but my pointer. I was standing over the sink, so I ran water over them and they didn't look all that bad, but all I could tell was that there was a lot of pain and a lot of blood. Then I got really light headed and felt like I was going to pass out, so Che' rushed me to the couch to get me to lay down. We put a kitchen towel around my hand and I was holding pressure on all of my fingers to stop the bleeding. After a while, I glanced at my fingers to check out the damage and it appeared that my fingers looked okay, but my thumb had a big chunk of skin hanging off and you could see right in there. Disgusting. Che' has a picture of that that I will spare you!

Che' then came over to check it out and I was positive I was going to be able to just put some bandaids on and continue on. But, she took one look and told me that I needed to get to the instacare for some stitches. So, Devin hauled me to the instacare (and I was looking lovely might I add-- freezer meal day has never been a day that you get up and get ready if you know what I mean...). So Che' got stuck at the house with all 5 kids and a ton of freezer meals that still needed to be made. Devin and I waited at the instacare for a while and then finally got called back. I thought they were going to tell me that I needed stitches in my thumb only, but no-- all four fingers. lovely. It was a painful process, but we got those babies stitched up. The doctor and nurse became my new best friends as I got to know them really well during those 45 minutes.

With my new stitchwear, we were finally out of there. I knew I was not going to be much help with one hand, so I made Devin call into work so that he could stay home and help finish the meals and then clean up the mess. He joked with me that I went to great lengths to get out of cleaning the kitchen. It's true.

I didn't have much use of my left hand for the first week or so, so my nice neighbors brought food, helped me with getting the kids in their jammies at night, and Devin's parents also brought us a bunch of food. Super sweet. Devin got the job of doing my hair each day. :) What a good husband.

Now, it has been almost two weeks and I got the stitches out yesterday. The doctor told me that I will never be a hand model as my fingers will always have scars, and boy am I sad about that... (yeah right-- I would never be a hand model since I am such a nail biter...). So sad.

Now, enjoy some gruesome looking photos of the journey.

At the instacare-- no shot of the thumb, lucky for you...

looking great


This appears that you can see my spirit says Devin. haha! I hope I didn't come that close to death...

After a few days. My fingers were so black and blue and swollen like sausages. I was lucky, though, that all the cuts were in between joints on my fingers. Could have been a lot worse!

Devin's first day of doing my hair. What a lovely job.

look how swollen those fingers are in that one...

Still a little black and blue, but pretty functional now. You can't see the scars very well, but they are there. I am married again as well! (I didn't wear my ring that entire time-- couldn't get it over my fat fingers and over the stitches! I only got asked out once. True story. By a client...)

First freezer meal casualty. Totally worth it.



January 28, 2014

Happy 9th Birthday Flor!

Oh my gosh, is it really so? I am finally blogging about poor Flor's birthday?? Yeah, it's true.

I am only 22 days late.

I think Flor hits the shaft for birthdays on so many levels. Can I just name them?
1) Flor's birthday is immediately after Christmas (Jan 6) so that makes it hard to do back to back presents
2) Flor has no real interests or things she just loves, so that makes shopping extra difficult since she can't really tell us what she wants, nor does she play with toys all that well. So, clothes it is generally.
3) Flor doesn't really know what is going on & she doesn't understand what a 'birthday' is, so even though she loves the extra attention and the cake, she still doesn't really get what it is about. Therefore, her parties are usually more low key- just us at home. We did make her a rice dinner (her fav) and that has to count for something. And I also made the cake homemade & that really counts for something because I am awesome at boxed cakes.
4) Flor's birthday doesn't get blogged till 100 years later because I am a slacker.

So, POOR FLOR. Does anyone feel bad for her? I do. I am feeling a bit of guilt, can you tell?

All in all, though, we had a wonderful birthday celebration with this girl. She is as cute and spunky as ever. I love her smile and her laugh and her social butterfly-ness. I can't believe that she is 9 whole years old. That is really, really mind blowing to me. She hasn't grown much taller, but she is getting a bit of a belly these days. She still has her little bird legs, so she kind of looks a bit lopsided sometimes. haha, poor thing.

Flor is working hard at school on some goals like walking up the stairs with one hand, sorting objects, carrying her own lunch tray, putting on her own socks, washing her hands alone, tracing lines, sticking to an activity for more than one minute (yes, ONE MINUTE-- she has no attention span at all!), etc. She is also doing speech therapy and has adaptive PE where her PE teacher says that she is one of the fastest in the class going around the laps in the gym three times on PE day- that is when she decides to do it instead of plopping herself in the middle and not participating. Can you tell she has a personality?! This girl knows what she wants.

Flor has new primary teachers (yes teacherS- two teachers for two kids in the class) and she is really giving them a run for their money so far. Both appear very frazzled and a little out of sorts at the end of class each Sunday. Bless their hearts. Please pray with me that Flor will calm down, stop throwing crayons and pulling hair, and be a good little girl in Primary. It is true that she knows when and with whom to push buttons. I am in the primary presidency, so I am in sharing time with Flor. When I am sitting there looking at her, she is such a little angel. Nice, no getting out of her seat, nothing. Then, as soon as I stand up to do sharing time (I have had the month of January), she is out of her seat, getting into people's bags, pulling hair, making a ruckus, laughing at everything, throwing herself on the floor, pulling her dress over her head, and on and on. These two poor ladies try their best to get her to sit down, but she just loves having free reign of the room while I am occupied. See how smart she is?

Anyway, there is a little info on our 9 year old Flor. We love our Florinda Perry Perry to pieces and adore the personality she came with, even if she is hard on other people sometimes. :)












All her loot. Even a chair as we were optimistically hoping she would actually sit in it from time to time...

January 20, 2014

Utah Adoption Specialists

We interrupt this silence on the blog to let you know that the Utah Adoption Specialists website is now live! YAY! It is beautiful, if I do say so myself. :)

Please check it out here: www.utahadoptionspecialists.com and let me know what you think!

We are also working on our SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which means where we show up on google searches. Some simple things you can do to help us are to +1 our Google Plus page (here: https://plus.google.com/100423011567911487639/posts?hl=en) and/or to post a link to our website on any social media accounts that you may have, such as facebook, twitter, blogs, etc. This helps us show up at the top of the list! :)

Thanks everyone for your support!! We are up and running and excited about the future.


January 8, 2014

...And a Happy New Year!

We celebrated on New Year's Eve at our house with my cousin Sarah and her husband Daniel, who live right down the road from us. It's the best ever. She helps me out a lot in life and it is so nice having her there. So anyway, we played Monopoly (worst game ever-- whose idea was that!?) and ate a bunch of junk while watching the countdown on T.V. We always have a good time with Sarah and Daniel. 

Ummm? So when I told the men to pose for a picture, this is the best we get?



OHHH And I decided that Devin and I should do a huge ol' puzzle over the break and it was a great time! It has probably been a hundred years since I've done a puzzle like this, but it was so fantastic that I went out and bought six more shortly after this one was finished. :)

This is the part where I am supposed to tell you my New Year's Resolutions. I really only have one: Be a better person and become closer to who my Heavenly Father wants me to be.

Whew!! All caught up in the knick of time. I start my last semester of school tomorrow and I cannot wait. Not to go to school, but to get it over with. The countdown is on!


Merry Christmas 2013!

We had a great Christmas this year. It was actually the first year that we were home on Christmas morning since having children. A little crazy, yes? Devin's parents have primarily been on missions during every Christmas since we got married (except one or two), so we have gone to Idaho every year since our first Christmas married. This year we knew they would be going on another mission, so we wanted to spend Christmas with them. I am not going to lie, the thought of missing Christmas in Idaho was hard for me, just because my family is so full of traditions and we really enjoy time together with all of us. I really loved Christmas though. I love Devin's family and I honestly wish that we spent more time with them and had a closer relationship (who says that about their in-laws? me!) The family has gotten much closer it seems since Devin's parents have lived up here and it has really been fun. We had a great Christmas at home on Christmas morning and then headed to his parents' house for Christmas dinner. 
Here are a bunch of pictures that I will mostly let speak for themselves!
Christmas Eve Jammies!

Some treats for Santa and Rudolph, plus a little note from Hals


Unsure about where the picture of just Jace in his jammies is...

Santa came!!! YAY!!!!


a very blurry picture of Jace and his new train


Remember how she asked for roller skates? Santa listened!


I gave Devin a gift card to Cafe Rio for the sole purpose that I love that place. Gifts for my husband that are really for me? yes please!!


Cutest gift from Grandma Donna! Isn't she such a good shopper?




 Christmas Dinner!











 That weekend, my dad and Sharon came down and brought us gifts. We enjoyed their stay and their company!

One of the gifts from Grandma and Grandpa 
We hope everyone's season was amazing! Happy New Year!