Abdominal Pain

Since Carter has been born I have had weird abdominal pain, that is totally random. It is typically pretty severe. The first time I had the pain it was  SUPER bad. I was instantly doubled over and in bed moaning. I had Adam give me a blessing and almost take me to the ER. I decided to wait it out and see if I felt better in the morning, which I did feel a bit better, at least able to get out of bed. So I went on with life as usual after the first episode and figured it was probably due to all my guts being squished and then having to adjust back after Carter's birth. I guess I hoped it wouldn't happen again. Plus I did not want any more medical bills. Well, I hate to say that after that first time for about a month it seemed to happen every week and since then the pain episodes are fewer and farther between.

Then last month it happened again. I was down a full 24 hours and we even had to show the house that day so I ended up at my Mom's with the 3 kids after I picked up, mopped, vacuumed and cleaned bathrooms in pain. It sucked! BAD! So I decided to go to Dr. Firth.

Initially he ordered an abdominal ultrasound thinking it was a pancreatic hernia. Turns out, it wasn't. Then a week after that I had to get a CT scan, with contrast which made me sick (by the way) and that revealed a small cyst in my pancreas. Dr. Firth then sent me to a specialist names Dr. Gargg he is from India. I was originally not going to be able to get into him until July but they put me on their cancellation list and ended up calling a couple days ago. So I went to see him, he asked lots of questions, I did my best to answer. He asked about family history of pancreatic or intestinal cancer which my Grandmother had. That scares me a bit. All in all he ended up saying he thought it was one of four things.

1. When my gallbladder was removed, a stone could have gotten into my intestines and at the time was small but has grown now and bothers me.

2. The cyst is cancer, however that does not explain random pain.

3. I have pancreatitis. Which is swelling of the pancreas, I believe?

4. Something with my intestinal sphincter and my bile duct that I didn't really understand. It correlates with getting my gallbladder removed. Which was taken out after Rachel was born.

He wants more data so is sending me to another specialist at LDS hospital in Salt Lake on June 20th for an internal ultrasound and biopsee of the cycst. They put me out and shove a tube down my throat to get a good picture from the inside and also take a sample of the cyst.

Yes, I am scared and my mind is thinking of the worst things. I will try hard to post results. I am praying Aflac covers these procedures.

Memorial Day Weekend

Highlight 1:
Adam working a half day so we could get up to Franklin Basin and set up camp before dinner time. Letting the kids just hang out and explore.

Highlight 2:
My whole family coming up for hamburgers and hot dogs around the campfire Friday night. My Uncle Bruce even came with his two grand kids, Mason and McKenna. My kids loved playing with them. I'm glad they came. Too bad my Dad was sick and couldn't make it last minute.

Highlight 3:
Bear Lake on an overcast day. It was chilly but my kids are "crazy" and they played and got wet and dug in the sand as if it was 80 degrees out. It was super fun watching them. Adam and I laughed and laughed about how adventurous they are. When they got cold, we packed up and left. It was a great memory!

Highlight 4:
Rachel was being so cute in the car wearing her sunglasses upside down and pretending to sleep. What a cutie!

Highlight 5:
Meeting up with the Chandler clan at second dam for dutch oven dinner. Everyone was there but Bug, she had a work trip. As always the cousins played and played. Rach loved throwing rocks in the shallow water and Dayton was climbing big trees and rocky cliffs (okay more like a steep hillside) and having a blast!

Highlight 6:
Hanging out at camp in the sun together on Sunday. Doing nothing but relaxing and being in nature. It was beautiful!

Highlight 7:
Teaching the kids how to drink out of a pop bottle. Dayton rocked it, Rach spilled all over herself because she didn't want any help, "herself" she said. Then she cried when her shirt was soaked. Oh to be 2 years old!

Highlight 8:
Hanging out in the trailer, I love that thing! BEST BUY EVER!

Highlight 9:
Deciding to come home Sunday about 4 pm so everyone could sleep in their own beds and I could see my sister who was up visiting. It was a nice visit to see her and Talia. They came over to our house so did Joe and my parents to visit for about 1 1/2 hours. It was fun to see her!

Highlight 10:
Waking up early Monday morning to run together. Carter was still sleeping at 7:30 am so we took the opportunity to go since he sleeps til 8 am. I pushed Rach and Dayton rode his bike. Adam ran with Taya. It is always nice to get back into running and I love going in the mornings when it is cool and quiet.

Highlight 11:
Getting a big "to do" list done during the day. I get so over whelmed when I have a dozen things to do and no time to do them. I was great having Adam home to help. Some of these things were...
5 loads of laundry to wash, fold, and put away.
Unloading from camp trip.
Posting about trip.
Cleaning up kitchen and mounds of dishes from having family over.
Cleaning out coolers and dutch ovens.
Weeding and moving the lawn.
Watering the grass and flowers.
Bathing the dogs.
Cleaning out both the van and the truck. Washing the outside of them too.
Cleaning our outdoor pond.
And a few more items I did not list.

Highlight 12:
Getting away Memorial Day evening for a drive together and Wendy's!My chicken cashew salad was delicious and I didn't have to cook! Thanks Adam!

Crayon Corner Preschool Graduation

Dayton graduated his first year of preschool today! He sang awesome! It was so fun to watch him! He knew all the words. At one point he stopped singing to scratch his legs in the middle of the song.... um, whatever. It was enjoyable to watch him and he had a good year with Traci. Thanks Grandma's and Pa for coming to support!

 Flowers with their faces on them that they made for us to keep!

His whole class! This class is the older group and Mrs. Traci made an exception for Dayton to be in the class so he could attend the same time I taught mine. So D is a year younger than all of these kids. He did awesome the whole year as the "runt."

 Rockin ABC's!

 We are the dinosaurs, marching marching!

His Roar! At the end of a song! The best kid EVER!

Dayton with his friend Jack. They get along really well and D even went to his birthday party last weekend. His chair was shorter than Jack's so he was trying to sit up a little taller in this. Cute boys!

Dayton had a great year at preschool. He grew a lot, especially because he got to go to his own school with his own teacher, not his Mom. He loves singing! He is very bright and can count to 20 and write all his letters and recognize them too! He knows many of their sounds but gets mixed up on a few. He can read some sight words too like and, the, I. He also write's his name well! We love you buddy! We are so proud to call you ours!

Shout Out to Rachie!

I love this girl! This last Sunday she was looking darling in her hot pink dress and she was VERY happy and fun! I took her outside to get pictures and I tried to get candid shots, nothing posed, just her! They turned out BEAUTIFUL! Rach is 2 1/2 years old. She is so polite, ALWAYS! It melts my heart! She has a sweet little voice and gives the best kisses. She eats like crazy and will try everything on her plate, every meal. She is my angel girl!

 And then she wanted to jump! These next few turned out so so so CUTE!

 Then she fell down... and was apparently tired!

This one is so precious! Love you Rachel!