Trials

We are told that our trials make us stronger and that we are not given more than we can handle.  I feel like I am holding up a huge STOP sign, and yet the trials just keep coming.  If our trials make us stronger, then we must be the bionic family....I know things could be worse then what they are, but enough is enough already.

As we ask these questions, we realize that the purpose of our life on earth is to grow, develop, and be strengthened through our own experiences.
Tests and trials are given to all of us. These mortal challenges allow us and our Heavenly Father to see whether we will exercise our agency to follow His Son. He already knows, and we have the opportunity to learn, that no matter how difficult our circumstances, “all these things shall [be for our] experience, and … [our] good.”¹
 Robert D. Hales

The last six months have been jammed packed with trials, obstacles and challenges and to be quite frank, I/we are all am ready for a break!

In September we found out that I had a tumor.  A few weeks later the tumor was removed, not without some challenges from John changing jobs and thus changing insurance companies. Thankfully, John got insurance effective immediately and we didn't have to wait 30 days or the financial burden would have been much worse.

In December John got a tooth ache, which was an infection and had to be fixed with a root canal. Shortly before Christmas I got sick with a cold, the nerve racking cough lasted nearly 2 months.

In January John had another tooth ache, this time it was his wisdom teeth.  His right arm also started bothering him in January, and both his hands would fall asleep easily.  The pain in his right arm was getting so bad he couldn't grip anything or even shake someone's hand.

In February John had his wisdom teeth removed, the whole ordeal has been anything but pleasant. He ended up with a dry socket, we thought after being treated for the dry socket he was on the road to recovery, but that hasn't been the case.  A month and 8 days has passed since having his wisdom teeth removed, and he is still having problems.  His jaw still hurts, his neck hurts and his face is still swollen.  This week he went back to the oral surgeon again, and they say his lymph nodes are "mad" so they have him on antibiotics.  Also, in February Ashlee and Mikayla both got sick.  Ashlee ended up with strep throat, Mikayla had all the same symptoms as Ashlee, but didn't have strep.

In March, Ashlee got strep again.  Nearly one month to the day from having it last month. John's right arm was hurting him more so he went and saw an orthopedic surgeon.  The doctor says he has tennis elbow and possibly carpal tunnel.  Yesterday he got an injection for the tennis elbow and the pain has gotten worse.  Just watching him trying to do something as simple as brushing his teeth, brings me pain.  I can tell he is in a lot of pain, but he is still trying to carry on and go to work and do the things he needs to do.   The good news is, the shot for his arm, some how made his jaw not hurt for a while. Mikayla is getting ready to start her second phase of braces. This week the orthodontist told us that her wisdom teeth are already coming in, and they are not in a good position.  After everything John has been through with his wisdom teeth, I don't think the girls will ever let us take them to have theirs out!  I also took Mikayla to the doctor for a routine ear check, and the doctor looked in her throat and says she has a "growth" in her throat.  He said allergies or a virus may be causing the "growth", but if it doesn't go away soon she will have to have it burned off.  Mikayla isn't looking forward to having anything "burned" off.  She just had to have a wart burned off a few months ago and it was pretty painful for her.

I also had my first post op mammogram check this week, I go to the surgeon next week, to see how things are going.

I sure hope brighter days are ahead.....and that these trials will make us stronger, because when you're living them day in and day out, it really starts to wear on you/me which in turn wears on the family too.

Waiting upon the Lord means pondering in our hearts and “receiv[ing] the Holy Ghost” so that we can know “all things what [we] should do.”

As we follow the promptings of the Spirit, we discover that “tribulation worketh patience”and we learn to “continue in patience until [we] are perfected.”

Waiting upon the Lord means to “stand fast” and “press forward” in faith, “having a perfect brightness of hope.”

It means “relying alone upon the merits of Christ”and “with [His] grace assisting [us, saying]: Thy will be done, O Lord, and not ours.”

As we wait upon the Lord, we are “immovable in keeping the commandments,” knowing that we will “one day rest from all [our] afflictions.”

And we “cast not away … [our] confidence”²⁸ that “all things wherewith [we] have been afflicted shall work together for [our] good.”

 I happened to go to LDS. Org today and here was this video, first one on the front.  What a nice reminder to know, we are not alone. Click the link to watch.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-003-mountains-to-climb?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013&lang=eng&cid=HP_Homepage-2015_3-17-15_dPTH_L1-A_759

Freshman Orientation

Ashlee, Mikayla, and I attended Freshman orientation tonight.

Yikes.  I cannot believe we will soon have a child in high school.  We have been debating back and forth on whether or not to file an intra-district transfer to get her into another high school across town; but he have been up against many road blocks, because she is currently not attending a school that "feeds" into her high school.  I never would've thought it would be so difficult to enroll your child into a school when you live in the school district, but apparently it is.

Anyways, we haven't been able to apply for a transfer and we probably won't be able to apply for one until next school year, since the deadline has passed, so she will have to attend high school at the school closest to us.

I have to say I was rather impressed with the kids that I saw there.  But, as someone mentioned to me as we were sitting there, the parent's who care are the ones that attend these things, the ones that we are worried about don't attend these things.  Let's just hope there are more that care then don't care and everything will be fine.  Because this whole high school thing has thrown me for a loop.

Ashlee holding a tomato plant that the FFA group was passing out.

Ward Talent Show

Our ward had a talent show tonight.  Ashlee displayed a quilt that she has been making in young women's and Mikayla displayed some of her art work.

John's Wisdom Teeth

John has been pretty "lucky" with his teeth, for the majority of his life, up until a few months ago that is.... Back in December we were at a Christmas Parade and he asked me for some Advil, I asked him if he had a headache, he said no a toothache.  Needless to say, a few days later he was at the dentist.

 He had an infection and needed to have a root canal.  Apparently he has a baby tooth that never came out, and the adult tooth is sitting up there crooked and never came down.  (Now we know why Ashlee has had to have some major dental work done.  She also had a tooth way up in her cheek area that had to be forced down).  He was put on antibiotics for 10 days and scheduled for a root canal, piece of cake!

A few weeks after he had the root canal, he developed another toothache.  This time on the opposite side.  A few days later he went to the dentist, the dentist couldn't find anything obvious, so he told him it has to be his wisdom teeth and sent him to an oral surgeon.  Long story short, John had all four of his wisdom teeth removed on February 12th and it has been anything but pleasant for him.

John was sedated for the procedure, and it's a miracle I got him home and in the house without hurting himself.  It took the nurse and I about 10 minutes to get him in the car and once he got in the car, he face planted himself into the center console.  I finally got him in his seat and buckled in and as we were leaving he started playing with the visor, he was checking to see if he had lipstick on!  As I drove home, I had one hand on him and one on the steering wheel.  It was like he couldn't control his head and he was saying stuff and then he would go to sleep.  Once we got home, it took about 20 minutes to get him from the car into the house.  He was very "loopy", he could barely walk, he was wondering why his feet wouldn't work.  I had to hold on to one side of him, while he held on to something else along the way with his other side.  I finally got him to the living room, turned for a split second to get him some Kleenex and he had fell off the couch on to the floor.  I knew I was stuck, there was no way I could lift him.  I grabbed him a pillow, put it under his head and told him to stay there.  Unfortunately, he didn't listen.  He crawled to the couch, got himself back up on the couch and almost fell off the arm of the couch.  I finally got him to stay put, and by this time he was asking for pain medicine.  There was no way I could leave him at home and go to the pharmacy to get his medications, so I called my mom (who was getting ready to go bring my grandpa home from his prostate surgery) and she came to watch him while I went to the pharmacy.

While I was at the pharmacy, John started to become semi-conscious again, he was a little aware of what was going on around him.  When he finally came completely to, about 3 hours after his procedure, he didn't remember anything.  He doesn't even remember getting home.  He was definitely out of it!

The plan was to have the surgery on a Thursday, John would miss work Friday, Monday was a paid holiday, and he would return to work on Tuesday.  Things didn't go as planned, John was in a lot of pain and had lots of swelling. The pain medication wasn't working real well at controlling the pain, and the medication was making him, drowsy, nauseous and dizzy.

By Monday morning, John had went through and entire bottle of pain medication, so I took him back to the oral surgeon.  The surgeon said he may or may not have a dry socket, and said we needed to wait a day or two more to know for sure, and prescribed a new medication for him.  Tuesday morning, John got up and got dressed to go to work, but he was in so much pain, he just couldn't do it.  All day Tuesday he was in pain, the new medication wasn't working.  Wednesday morning I took him back to the oral surgeon and they started to treat him for a dry socket.  The surgeon cleaned the area, packed it with medicated gauze, and within minutes, John had relief!

 John still has packing in his mouth, every couple of days he goes to the oral surgeon to have the packing changed.  Tomorrow he goes in, hopefully for the last time and has the packing removed for good.  Saturday was the first time in 10 days he had an actual meal to eat.  He is finally back to work and able to eat some food.  Hopefully in another week he will be back to a 100 percent.

John says he is never having his wisdom teeth taken out again !!! Ashlee and Mikayla say they are never having theirs taken out!

SNA

Ashlee turned 14 about a month ago and tonight she attended her first SNA (Saturday Night Activity) a church dance.  She went with a friend from church who also recently turned 14.  She had fun, she said she would go to another one, so that's a good thing.

New Beginnings

Tonight the girls and I attended our wards Young Women's New Beginnings Program.  The theme for the night was a cruise ship theme, which tied into the 2015 church theme of "Embark in the Service of God."  They did a great job planning out the activity, and did not leave out any details, they even had entertainment during dessert, a skit performed by the Young Women and their leaders.

Ashlee had a few parts in the program for the evening and Mikayla was introduced as a new beehive entering the program in April.

Our ward has a very small Young Women's group.  Half of these girls are new beehives that will enter into the program this year.

They had a photo booth, with props for the girls.  They had a leader taking pictures with a Polaroid camera, so they could take their photo's home that night.  This is Olivia and Ashlee, being silly.

Valentines, a day early...

This morning we woke up and found this on the kitchen island.  Mikayla got up sometime during the night and left us this note.  So sweet.  It really is the little things that count.