April Part 13: Projects

In April, our office desks almost got finished. Brian figured out a good method for putting the edge banding on our desk tops. 

I got all the pieces stained and protected with a finish. It took forever, and I took no pictures. We let everything dry/cure in the garage for a week. Brian finally got to put the pieces together (and discovered that he'd accidentally cut double the amount of cross pieces. Oops!) 

It was an exciting day when my desk made it upstairs. 

Finally, we got to attach the desk top to the legs! 

It sits flush up against the wall!!

Brian drilled a big hole for a special power outlet. (We'd also hung these floating shelves that had been kicking around for months). 

Then, with the tops completely cured, it was time to take his desk apart. In between games on April 29, he got his desk taken apart 

And the new one all assembled and in place. He even got his keyboard tray installed. 

Unfortunately, something didn't quite add up when he went to put the desktops on the drawer pieces. 

 He lost all steam after these literally came up short. Guess the office won't get put back together until May. 

I would like to note that today is May 10, and for the first time in a long time, our family blog is basically caught up, especially because I've gotten into a good groove with how I've been writing them and I will just wait for May to be finished! I feel so proud of myself!!! Now, to just get caught up on photo books and getting these blog posts all printed. 

April Part 12: Dance and Let's Play Music Recital

When the scheduler first called me to schedule my heart surgery, she first threw out April 18. I pulled out my planner and saw that the 18th was the day before Rachel's ballet recital, and I knew there was no way I could do it then. I looked through April and May and realized that there was not going to be a great time to do surgery until July, and even that wasn't really great. Deciding it would be better to do it sooner than later, I scheduled the 25th, hoping I could recover enough to handle Apri-vember and Maycember. 

So, with six days until surgery, Rachel had her ballet recital. This time, they had it in Taylorsville, they did two performances, and they did a school night. I was not happy about this, but what could I do? I had to check her out of school early to get her to Taylorsville for her call-time. Then, I had dinner by myself and read until the performance started. Brian had the more difficult task of getting the boys ready, getting Gabe to Let's Play Music, getting Gabe early from Let's Play Music (we would have had him skip if it hadn't been the week before his recital), grabbing dinner, and then getting to Taylorsville during rush hour. They barely made it in time, but they made it time. 

The Recital's theme was "A Night at the Museum" and each dance was inspired to a degree by a famous work of art. I can't remember the work that inspired Rachel's dance, something about a walk in the park, and so her class danced to a Mary Poppins medley and had the CUTEST costumes. 

Rachel did so great! I was so proud of her! 

We got to greet her in the lobby after her first performance. 

Michael and Rachel pinkie promised to be friends forever. I think. 

I went to Target to buy flowers, but they didn't have any at that one, so I made my own out of pipe cleaners and tied mini Kit Kats to them. I used a flower gift bag for a vase. 

Remember how I told you that carrying Rachel was a thing?

After greeting Rachel, the boys headed home, and I stuck around for the second performance, but in the meantime, I was amazed by how blue Rachel's eyes were in the lobby. 

I made her pose for a few more pictures, now that most of the people had gone. 

Well, some of the people had gone. 

And then I watched her later performance, the one that started at 8 p.m. On a School night. 

She did so great again. 

We got her a burger and onion rings after it was all over, around 9:30. Poor thing was starving, despite the many snacks I tried to get her to eat. 

The next week--the week of surgery, the week Rachel fell and hurt her leg, and the week she got a little cold--came around and it was time for her final solo competition. She was tired, burnt out, and not feeling well, but still she had to dance. Her dance mama was tired, weak, and struggling to get enough air, especially after walking way more expected around the high school her competition was at. We were all a hot, tired mess, except Brian. I told Rachel about Michael Jordan beating the Jazz in the play-offs when he had the flu. I told her she was Michael Jordan with the flu and she could do this! 

She rallied. She danced, and she earned a ruby rating. We were so proud of her for sticking with it, even when she didn't feel up to it. 

My mom, who was in Ogden watching Chelsea's kids while Thomas and Chelsea were in Europe, came down to Salt Lake with Amber on Saturday to watch Rachel's final team competition and help me get Rachel where she needed to go. My mom helped carry her big bag to the dressing room for us, took her lunch to her during a break, and basically was my legs throughout the day. The boys had games all day, and so Brian was with them, and I really appreciated my mom helping me. Rachel really loved that Grandma and Amber were there to cheer her on. She had some pretty big smiles for us that day. 

For their final competition, Rachel's team scored a diamond on The Rose, a ruby on Glam, and a diamond on Purse First. A rose Diamond was that absolute highest, but I only heard about two of those awarded. They did amazing! 

Rachel was supposed to stick around the competition for a Master Class, but when she expressed not wanting to go, I told her she didn't have to. Her coach gave her a bit of grief, and by the time my mom showed up with her at my car, Rachel seemed upset. I texted her coach, "I'm sorry about the masterclass, but Rachel's been running on empty all week and we're both just done today." She told me that it was okay, and I really appreciated her understanding. Well done, my dear little Michael Jordan! You did it!

We went from Rachel's competition in West Valley to Gabe's Let's Play Music Recital in Highland. He was so cute and did so well! 

We loved having a carpool this year with our neighbor, Charlotte. It's been fun having a familiar face in class. 

Miss Kara has been phenomenal and so patient with me and my issues. 

Unfortunately, due to the nature of this time of year, we had to drop Michael off at his flag football game and completely miss it to be at Gabe's recital. If only we could be two or three places at once! It was a crazy, long day. After we got home, I totally crashed (there is no good time for a mom to have surgery!). 

 I'm so proud of all my kids! It takes a lot of work and sacrifice to develop talents. A year ago, Gabe set a new year's goal to learn how to play the piano, and he's been working on it for the past eight months. Rachel wants to be a great dancer, and she goes three days a week to make that happen. Michael is throwing a football every chance he gets. It's fun celebrating their hard work, which we did by getting dinner at The Purple Turtle so we could all have their yummy shakes! 

April Part 11: Daily Life

Adjusting to normal life after the cruise was a bit brutal. Our sunburns started peeling, and the boys especially were surprised to find out that they could sunburn on their ears. 

We had to see how Gabe and Rachel measured up size wise. We are making predictions about when he'll pass her in height. 

Gabe and Michael started Flag Football. Gabe is on the Saints, and Michael is on the Vikings. Neither have anyone they know on their team. 

A new taco place opened up in town, and I love their sign. Also, now I want tacos. 

We laughed at this car in the parking lot. There are actually two dogs sitting in the front of this car. 

Speaking of dogs, don't you worry, Gracie is still head of security at our house, and she takes her position very seriously. 

The Fourth grade had a "County Fair" where each student had to research a county in Utah, create a presentation and have some kind of creative project to help show off the county. This project happened to be due after a very long week of dance. Thanks to her ballet recital (more on that in the next post), she lost her one free evening to dance. We ended up checking her out of school twice that week, once for the recital and once so she'd have time to work on this in between school and dance. Every morning before school, she worked on her project because she had not time after school. Even her Tuesday day of dance, which normally starts at 5, started at 4 due to a dress rehearsal. Amazingly, she got it done. She made mini goblin rock formations out of clay to represent Goblin Valley. 

Brian loved that you could 100% tell that she did everything all on her own. Some of the other projects definitely had help from other sources. 

Rachel also decided to buy a moped off KSL. I had found one for $90, and Brian and I drove to Salt Lake to get it for her. She was very excited to have one like most of her neighborhood friends. 

Gracie somehow managed to perfectly wrap herself up in this blanket. She loves the fluffiest, softest blankets. 

Brian finally mailed in his passport renewal, but not before taking pictures of all his stamps. Here's the edge of his Visa for going to Belarus and four stamps: Frankfurt 05-04-13 (April 5, 2013), Visa  Frankfurt 06-04-13, Frankfurt 13-04-13, and Frankfurt 14-04-13. (This is from his trip to Belarus for work. Adaptive Computing flew him to San Francisco to get his same-day passport to go on this trip). 

Here's stamps for his trip to India in 2018: Visa Amsterdam 11.11.18 (top), arrived New Delhi 12 Nov 2018 (left middle), Amsterdam 11.11.18 (middle right) and the top of his Visa for India. The bottom left stamp is from our Europe trip in 2015: Admitted NYC July 21, 2015

Departed New Delhi 16 Nov 2018. 

Left stamp: Admitted POO (Portland, Oregon) Nov 16, 2018, right stamp: Admitted ATL April 14, 2013

Left top: I enjoyed a trip to Sunnegga 2'299 M u.M. Matterhorn Zermatt Bergbahnen (Special stamp at Matterhorn, Utah Ambassadors of Music Europe Trip 2015) Bottom left: Immigration office 7 Jul 2015 Heathrow (Utah Ambassadors of Music Europe Trip 2015) Bottom right: Frankfurt 21 07 15 (July 21, 2015, UAM Europe Trip 2015). 

Nana and Papa were able to make it to Gabe's second flag football game of the season (it was right after his first game, and they missed it because they went to his soccer game, which we decided to skip since it was at the same time as his flag football game, but forgot to inform them. I hope they've forgiven us by now.)

Michael after his first flag football games. Or maybe before. These games were SO COLD!!

Our boys broke our TV. Michael left his airsoft gun unattended, and Gabe shot our TV with it, and consequently broke it. 

We've had lots of conversations about gun ownership and the responsibilities that come with it. We talked about not shooting guns in the house (apparently Gabe saw Michael shoot it in the craft room). We're learning lessons about how some things are really expensive and can't just be replaced at the drop of a hat (both asked for alternate screens within an hour of finding this one broken). We're learning that foolish actions also have consequences. With all the gun violence happening in our country right now, we're being pretty harsh with this one. I would rather they both learn how seriously guns need to be taken in low stakes than have lifetime regret over a simple accident when the stakes are higher.  We're grateful that this incident involved an Airsoft gun and that nothing actually irreplaceable was lost.   It's been painful for all of us. They both lost screens--Gabe for a month and Michael until he could move two cubic yards of dirt into our front garden beds, which didn't to our house for almost two weeks after the incident, and Michael got all the dirt moved within three days, in between school, football, and bad weather. 

On April 25, I had a second heart ablation. We had to be at the hospital at 5 a.m. down in Provo, and thankfully Kirt and Julie could stay the night and get the kids out the door in the morning and help run them to their after school activities. Kirt also helped Brian give me a blessing the night before.

I went into the surgery with dread. I did spiral out worrying about my impending death two days before surgery when I was home alone with my thoughts, but a friend pulled me out, and by the time I made it to the hospital, I was no longer convinced this was the end for me. However, this time, I knew what I was in for, and I just really dreaded all the things. 

We told my anesthesiologist about how miserable I was after waking up last time, about how threw up right after waking up, how I coughed up blood, how my throat was irritated for days. That blessed doctor apparently threw all his best tricks at me and was really careful about the tubes going down my throat. I happily slept through the two hours where I had to lay flat on my back post surgery, and my throat emerged with only a minor tickle. The experience was so different from the last time I woke up from this thing! While waiting for enough time to pass that they could remove the stitches, I sipped on slushies, and we ordered lunch. After they removed my stitches, we waited another hour, and then I went for a walk where I was super light headed, but well supported by Brian and my nurse. Finally, we were all ready to go home, except for talking with the doctor, who had been in and out of surgery all day. 

Dr. Wang, my EP (Electro Physiologist--aka heart electrician) finally made it to me, and he said that of the 4 veins they used cryoblation on in August, 1 had completely grown back, and two were almost grown back. After fixing all the A-fib places, he also did tests for other heart arrhythmias and found another spot and took care of that, so most likely, my SVT is forever fixed! So, I am pretty sure I'm back to only one heart arrhythmia! Dr. Wang said I did really well in surgery. After talking to Dr. Wang, I got dressed and we headed for home. I slowly made my way upstairs and crashed for the rest of the night. Meanwhile, our neighbor had brought pizza, Kirt ran the kids, and Brian had a good chat with his mom. At least, I think that's what happened. 

The next morning, my fellow Young Women leaders brought me this beautiful flower arrangement. 

I tried to use the stairs as little as possible. I lamented not having our main-floor TV, and hung out with Rachel who had stayed home from school due to a cold (she'd also stayed home from school the day before, but we still made her go to dance because of her upcoming dance competition.) I taught her how to knit a beanie using a circle loom, and I did a little embroidery. 

Thursday, two days after surgery, was laundry day. Brian needed to take his parents to the airport, and he had a few meetings he wanted/needed to go to at work (the actual building because he works from home still on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays). He had gathered all the laundry, and I slowly sorted it all using a reacher stick. While I was sorting, he took a shower, and I, as slowly as possible to not agitate my heart, sorted and sorted the massive pile. When he got out of the shower, he finished the task that was so hard for me in just a few minutes and started the first load. I wasn't sure how we were going to get all the laundry washed with him gone most of the day, so I swallowed my pride and asked a couple of neighbors to come help me rotate laundry. One came, Shalee, and put the first load in the dryer, started a new load, and then went and got me lunch. 

And a loaf of lemon poppy seed bread. 

She brought it about the time the other load was finished, and rotated another load. She hung around and folded one of the loads of laundry. Another neighbor, Beatris,  came to help me rotate again, and folded another load of laundry, all while I sat and watched. For the next load, I rotated it myself, taking a piece at a time until I had it done, knowing the whole time, I probably shouldn't have done that. 

Meanwhile, we found this

and this. 

I think this was a simple bloody nose, but sometimes, I think one of the roles of a parent is playing detective. Where is the scene of the crime? Is there blood somewhere else? What happened? What shirts need scrubbing? What else needs scrubbing. One morning, prior to this scene, I woke up to find Gabe's pajamas draped over the banister, covered in blood from what was clearly a bloody nose, but I know he didn't have it where I found the clothes, and I had so many questions. After preliminary stain scrubbing and then leaving the clothes to soak, I went searching for the scene of the crime. There was blood on the floor in the family room, and blood down a few of our cabinets. Apparently, in that case, Gabe got a bloody nose, but Brian didn't have time to do anything about it as he was heading out the door. Let's hope summer brings less bloody noses. 

On Friday, I went down to my craft room to do some sewing. I had told Chelsea I would help her with a dress for Amber for a school play, and I hadn't gotten to it prior to surgery. I was going to be seeing my mom and Amber the next day, so aside from my recent surgery, it was the perfect time to do it. I couldn't help but laugh to see Gracie hanging out on the steps outside my window. 

I started with this children's dress and women's blouse from D.I. I cut off the skirt, removed the ribbon sash (and forgot to take a picture of both pieces before I started my hack). 

I took in the front by sewing these inverted pleats to the shirt, cutting off the hem, and then adding the skirt from the dress, adding the ribbon and bow for a final embellishment. If you can't tell, it's supposed to be a 1920s style dress. 

Here Amber is modeling it with her cloche hat. 

I wished I'd had more time, or Amber with me, but I think it turned out pretty well. 

When Brian found me downstairs after his workout, he said, "What are you doing?" to which I responded, "I'm pulling a Grandpa Linville." 

"I can see that. Are you sure that's a good idea?" No, probably not, but it needed to be done. Later that afternoon, Rachel had her solo competition in Salt Lake, but that's another story as well. 

The next day, Gabe found this and let me know that my boxing glove had shrunk in the wash. 

This guy had been in my purse for a year and a half, and I decided to finally take it out. I probably should have put it away instead of leaving it on the counter. I think it's an awesome key chain, but I'm sad I can't do kick-boxing anymore. 

Remember how I said Gabe loves to read. Since losing screens, he's been reading a lot, and I love it! 

With the weather finally improving, we pulled out our hammock chairs. 

I even made my way slowly down below the deck to watch the boys throw a football around. 

The pictures aren't superb because I refused to get up to take them. I think my doctor would have backed me up on that one. 

We finished April feeling loved and supported by our neighbors. We only had one day since surgery where someone didn't bring us dinner, and that was only because we weren't going to be home. (One neighbor even sent food to the house simply to feed our boys.) Before we completely close the book on April though, I have a few more things to share. Stay tuned.