it's going on

So my dad's heart is fixed!!! There was a large hole he'd had since birth and they were going to try this very new procedure where they go up through a vein in his groin and have this umbrella-like plug that opens up and completely seals the hole. But if the umbrella isn't big enough because the hole is too big, the person isn't a canidate and they have to back out, wake him up, and schedule open-heart suregery. But it worked!  Everything went perfectly!!! Prayer works. He's at home recovering and happy to be in his own bed instead of at the hospital. What a MIRACLE. What a difference from last time....also miracles and working prayers, but so much more up, down, up, down, complications, waivered faith, fear, "what if," etc. This time we were all firm in our faith. We were totally together and supporting each other and him. We knew that whatever happened, everything would be alright. My dad was courageous.

My kitten, Dottie, had her surgery yesterday as well. She is now spayed. I was super nervous about it because Monte had the worst time with it (plus the nervousness from Dad going into surgery), but the vets and techs at the AZ Humane Society were so kind and gave lots of comforting words. After hanging out with my dad all afternoon while he had to lay flat for hours after surgery, I went and picked up Dot.
She's all shaved on her tummy with an inch cut in her lower abdomen, now all stitched up, and it's all flabby down there from the procedure. Poor little one. She's doing well now. Last night was very stressful keeping her and Monte apart (meaning one could be in our room with us and one had to stay out in the living room alone...SAD) so they didn't play fight and keeping her from licking her stitches. We tried to put a cone on her, but she flipped out like she was POSSESSED and was running into things and hurting herself. Oh my goodness. So I just keep watching her. She understands, "no-no, Dot!" when she starts licking, and has pretty much quit trying. But I still have to keep an eye on both kitties at all times. We all listen to hypnobirthing together and then they just go to sleep. It's great. :)

Had an appointment today and apparently little Skittlecore is posterior at this time. I'm going to work my hardest at being a human hammock and sitting forward at all times to get him/her to flip, but make sure to send your "turn your back and face my bum" thoughts our way. :) Mary the midwife says not to worry and that she's sure everything will work out the way it's supposed to. I'm really not worried. I feel confident and excited about birth.

I had one of those crazy experiences today that really make you grateful and really make you think. Some people are born into situations that are really hard and that they can't do anything about. I'm really blessed. I need to do more service, think of others more, be more motivated. I want to. I even complain about my phone. Some people don't have a phone.

In other news: it's hot out there, but the sky sure is pretty.

Check out this sweetness from labor day:

Skittlecore at 38 weeks.

Dot on her way to certain doom

Real Pirates at AZ Science Center. It's a REAL PIRATE SHIP from 1700s! It's coming in Oct and going to be amazing. Collin's heading up the whole thing!

Waiting for Dad to get out. Didn't take long!

Poor baby girl.

what a day...

ups and downs.

collin gave me the sweetest support and love and priesthood blessing this morning as I continue into pregnancy. I've had a pretty easy pregnancy. nausea but no vomiting. and the nausea only lasted 2 months. stretch marks, yes, but healthy me and healthy babe. fine to drive across the country 3 times, move twice, continue to be mobile etc. I've signed up at a great birth center and am excited to have a natural, exciting, loving, gentle birth. i never wanted to find out the sex, and we didn't, and it's been awesome, and i probably won't next time either. or ever. lately i've just gotten a bit overwhelmed with the weight. it's harder to move, get in and out of bed, walk, etc. I've continued to swim and do yoga, which help a lot. But I'm also so tired and take frequent naps during the day. my feet get pretty puffy too....but if I keep them up at night, they don't get too bad. so basically I have a really normal, healthy pregnancy....just some of the little things are catching up with me at 38 weeks. like insane itchiness!!!! Phew!! :) Collin's love for me and his hard work everyday inspire me to work hard and be a better woman. (i'm also trying to keep the baby in the "best position," so I try to lean over all the time....and I washed my whites in the tub today. by hand. I'll never do it again because it took forever and it wasted a lot of water. but cool. I did it. the kitties thought I was nuts.)

sadly, cs was in a small car accident today on the way to work. he's fine; the car's fine....no ticket...no fault...etc. just shaken up and had a hard frazzled day. when he came home he brought burritos from our fav place near our house. he had some cuts and bruises on his arm and hand. so sad!!!!! we spent the night snacking, playing games (I won), and watching SVU. we love SVU. but gotta stop after so many episodes...it gets in your brains....

The kitties. okay. so they play fight. it is usually fine. but sometimes they get a little carried away. today Dot was on the top of the kitty tree about to sleep and monte jumped up there and started fighting. they get aggressive on that tree. Dot let out a little cry and I jumped up to separate. monte backed down and squinted his eye like it hurt, and dot had a pierce in her cheek with a tiny blood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost started crying. I grabbed Monte and held him and hugged him and then Dot. it makes me scared and sad that they can't tell the difference of going too far right now. they spent the rest of the day apart and sleeping mostly. :( :(

my dad. goes in for heart surgery to patch the hole on Tuesday. I'll be there with my mom when he wakes up. he's going for this new procedure where they go in through a large vein in groin and go up with an umbrella type thing. it hopefully fits and can open inside and close the hole for life. If it doesn't work or the hole is too big, they will back out, wake him up and schedule open-heart surgery. I know whatever is supposed to happen will, but I'm praying for the umbrella to work.

Dot also has surgery to be spayed that day. I'm dreading it because monte had such a hard time when he went through it. plus she has to not eat the day before and has to have special litter for a week or so etc. it's really hard to do all this with two kitties when one gets to have everything normal. I am a firm believer that babies come when they are good and ready and when it's the best time for them and the mom, but that's one day I'd be nervous of little one coming. I'll still love you if you choose it though, skit.

my mom and cousin came over and helped me paint the baby's place today! it's so cute! I love it. not done yet, but when it is, there will be pictures.

okay, time for sleep. after pictures. tomorrow is the first day since we've lived here that there isn't something planned with us or work or family or something. so we're going to sleep in, eat a delicious breakfast and then discover our neighborhood shops. romantical, no?

 sun bathing. what a princess model

big cat!

AZ Science Center! Anne attacks!!

can't see ya

food digestion. anne helping.

whoa....everyone has always said that my mom and I are identical....i never 

believed, but now I do...so crazy. every other line is her then me. 

Dbacks with Collin and work people. 

totally forgot to take a picture inside or of the field.

Made mini donuts from scratch. 

with whole wheat, duh.

missionaries came and Dot was obsessed with their 

backpacks. seriously rubbing her face all over it and 

loving it and him. he was a cat-lover, himself. 

nighty.

ps. so netflix changed to the new rates. what did everyone decide? instant streaming? or DVD? or both? 

After yesterday and the hard night for him/his heart on Sat night, he seems to be doing much better. He is on a medication that stabilizes his heart till it can totally heal. They should be sending him home today to recover. Then they will try for the next heart procedure to fix the quarter sized hole he's had since birth. It is a blessing that they found it at all (wouldn't have without doing that other procedure), a blessing that we live so close to the AZ heart hospital with AMAZING doctors....top in the country for hearts....there are only a few doctors preforming BOTH of his surgeries in the COUNTRY. And he and we feel so loved by so many. After he rests a bit and gets better, hopefully in about a week, they will attempt to go in through a vein and plug up the hole with this "mini umbrella" type thing. This is a VERY new procedure. The doctor has only done 300, but none have been fatal. They get in, and if they can't do it, they don't. So if the hole is too big they will have to do open heart surgery. They will have to break his sternum and open his chest and he could be out for 3 months or so. (we talked to one of the nurses that had it done.) So we are DESPERATELY praying and hoping that 

1. the ablation scars over and is successful, and

2. he can get the first option, the non-surgical plug through the vein. 

I know that Heavenly Father has a plan and that everything will be okay. I know it. It's sometimes so hard to see past the trials right in front of me, but we all have faith. Collin assisted AJ in giving my dad a blessing of having faith last night. It was very special and beautiful. I know family is all that really matters. This little baby sure is lucky to be born into such a loving extended family and friends, huh? I hope I can be a worthy mother of such a special little being. I just get this feeling that there's something really good about him or her. 

Thank you for your prayers. Seriously, when someone says they are thinking of us and keeping us in their prayers, it makes me want to cry because I really feel it.

And this weekend we were supposed to be going to Tucson for Joseph and my dad's (he's the head coach) FIRST football game of the season. If you don't know my dad, playing and coaching Joseph in football and basketball are his true passions life. In fact, he keeps saying he has a testimony of sports and believes that's why he made it 51 years on this heart of his. He keeps saying he's going to be at the game. The doctors gave him an okay to walk around, go places, but take it easy, and that he wasn't allowed to PLAY football...so who knows haha....what a funny guy, my dad. 

this is a bit of a roller coaster. Things change so quickly, but I wanted to write more. There were complications. The first surgery is still healing, and my dad had another fribulation in the middle of the night last night so they had to shock his heart three times. When we got in to see him today after church, he was on a little oxygen again, but they took it off him pretty quickly. When we left tonight, his vitals were good, heart was steady all day, but for now they are going to send wait to do the hole surgery till next week. He's hoping that means sending him home tomorrow. Then the stress and worry starts again. But it will be okay. It was nice to be there, just the family all packed in his little room. Lots of love and honesty and LAUGHTER. I felt my dad's fear a little bit, but AJ and Collin gave him a priesthood blessing to have faith and that he will be okay. God is mindful of us. What a thought, but I know it's true. Collin and I fell asleep on a chair together this afternoon. We fit, even with my big belly. I love and rely on him completely. We are 36 weeks pregnant today. I love my family. I'm also soooooooo grateful for my friends. I feel so so loved. Thank you for prayers.

Miracles after the trial of faith!!

So I was feeling pretty down Saturday morning as we left for the hospital. Things seemed to be going worse. They had my dad back up to 100% assisted oxygen and things weren't looking up. I really kept saying in my mind, "have faith, have faith, have faith."

Collin and I get to his room in ICU and my mom is standing there and says to get over there, "he's spelling something!!!" For real, he was totally still, couldn't speak or open his eyes, but was spelling letters on his leg with his finger!!!! My mom was too revved up and kept just looking at his face to figure it out, PLUS the nurse of course was like, nah....it's just a reflex..."they" do this...hahaha. I was like....no way, you don't know my dad. Collin and I were figuring out the letters. My dad was getting sort of frustrated, you could tell, haha! But he would do the thumbs up when we got a letter right.

"I AM THIRSTY!!!!!!!" and "TAKE THIS OUT!!!" (cafiter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ouch!)
We got the nurse to come in a swab his mouth. It helped a little. Then they gave him more meds to put him back to sleep again. Once he was out, my mom and Collin left to get some food and maybe I'm imagining it, but I think there was this moment when my dad lifted his hand just to hold mine.

Oxygen guy comes back, EJ, the most awesome guy ever, he has been moved to 40%, and his blood test came back great, so the doctor wants to take him off and wake him to see how he breaths on his own. This was an interesting experience, but over all, if he stayed calm and concentrated, he did really well. CS and mom get back, Dad starts spelling again, he has to go to the bathroom. Collin tells the nurse, who kicks us out.

We were out in the waiting lobby for like 45 mins, and we were thinking she had kicked us out for good because we kept bothering her with, "what's that beeping? what does this cord mean? why is he doing that?" etc.

A nurse comes and calls us back, surprisingly, and when we get back to the room, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My dad was up, in a chair, totally awake, off oxygen machine, doing great!!!! What a surprise of my life!!!!!!!!!!!!! From then on it all got better and better. He was sort of loopy from coming off the drugs and just saying everything that came to mind, so it was pretty funny. But really, he wasn't being crazy. He was just being super happy, sarcastic, funny dad. He said he felt he could jog a mile. He was saying rude stuff to everyone too, but hey, how often do you get away with that and everyone just laughs like crazy??? AJ, Joseph, and cousins visiting from FL came and it was a great family time.

Now, a hole in the heart issue: the doctor who does the non surgical PLUG (new procedure, has been done by this guy about 300 times) came in, talked to him/us. Hole has definitely been there from birth, and may likely have caused the fribulation. All babies have these holes in the womb, and it is supposed to close up MINUTES after birth, but with a few people, it doesn't. (Crazy to think, baby boy or girl has one right now, too.) Most people don't make it to 51 with them. In the end, it was decided that the doctor would start trying to get a team together immediately, and hopefully will try the plug on Monday. The worst that could happen is that they say, nope, it won't work, the hole is too big. And then they'd have to do open-heart surgery and sew a patch in. The doctor said that either way, he is a strong healthy guy and will recover well.

Well, I hope so!!! My dad will stay in the hospital till then and hopefully not too long afterward. So we'll need all the faith and prayers a little longer. Man, thank you to so many who are so loving and kind and thoughtful. We FEEL your friendship and prayers. It's overwhelming. Though my dad was being sarcastic and crazy funny, he kept giving all the credit to God and saying that for some reason, all these miracles happened and "the good Lord" wanted him to stay around for a while. I'm grateful he's okay. :)

My dad abbreviated version: had a fribulation, a flutter, in his heart, causing the heart not to pump blood to body correctly (fairly common). Went in for surgery to deaden the veins causing this. The procedure worked because heart is pumping normally now, but during procedure his oxygen levels dropped and he was put on a ventilator at 100%. They were quite worried about this and did not wake him up afterward because it's very uncomfortable to have all the tubes and everything down your throat. He was taken off the oxygen a little, down to 70% (good), then 60% and then 40% this morning, but after a blood test he was not getting enough air and had to go back up to 100%. Just recently they put him at 60%, but he probably wont change for the rest of the day, meaning he won't be woken up yet. He is a fighter and wants to be awake so quite a few times as the sedation stuff wears off before needing to be changed, he has woken and started raising his hands to his mouth, trying to get the tubes out. I won't go into too much detail, but we hold his hands, and squeeze and talk to him, trying to get him to calm down till the doctor could get him more medicine. It's very hard to see him like this, but the doctor and nurses say he will be okay; we just have to be patient. The good signs were that when he was slightly awake, he would turn his head when people were speaking, to the left or right, following it. And at one point I asked him something and he nodded yes.

During the surgery they also found a large hole in his heart between the two upper chambers that he was born with and has gone undetected until now. They will have to close that soon (in the next weeks/month) but won't address it until he recovers from this. It's very scary and humbling, but is bringing us together. Of course, I go through all these thoughts in my mind I won't discuss, but my heart starts racing, and I try to calm down. My mom has been so tender and has been by his side all but a few hours when the hospital made her leave. Luckily Collin and I live only 10 minutes from there and she was able to come get a little sleep.

If you can, please pray that everything will be okay. We feel really loved and supported. I know that God loves us and is aware of my dad and our family right now; I feel it strongly in my heart, no matter what happens. But I think everything will be fine!