A Very Busy But Fun Week....

It has been a very busy, but fun week. I worked a lot of hours (thanks Sara) but that is a good thing. I got to spend some time with Lacey this week (btw, her kids are darling). On Wednesday Keanna played a powder puff game beings it is Pine Views homecoming week. The juniors lost by 1 point but it was all for fun anyway. Then on Friday it just was crazy. My friend Carolyn Q. had gotten me tickets to the Rascal Flatts concert. Ya I know, I couldn't believe it either. So Sara let me get off work at 1:30. We left St. George about 2:15. Everything was going fine, until we got to Utah County. The traffic and construction were horrible. We were finally able to get through it to meet Rays brother Ryan who had our tickets. Thanks for picking them up and meeting us. By the time we got to the Usana Theater where the concert was it was 8. Yep, it took us 6 hours. I sure don't miss all the traffic. But we got parked, grabbed something to eat and prepared for a great concert. And it was very good. Except it was a little chilly (I so love St. George weather) and they never sang my favorite song...I
Miss Mayberry. But like I said, it was still a good concert. And
wow people can be crazy. The crowd alone provided for some very
interesting entertainment. After the concert we headed back home.
We got home at 3:30. AM that is. We had barely gotten to bed when
my alarm when off at 4:45 to go running. It was an important run
today as part of our marathon training. Holly and Lacey were up
with me before the sun was even thinking of rising to go run 20
miles. And yep, we did it. Then after that i had a meeting and had
to go to work for a bit. While I was running around doing my
thing Ray was preparing to fly back east. Ray has accepted a new
job. Unfortunately it is out of state again. But this time its
much closer. He will be coming home every weekend. If you would
like to hear the details of the job please either text or email
me.

It is now going on 11 o'clock and we are finally winding down. Even though I'm absolutely exhausted I'm so thankful for the chance to go to the concert. And to be able to be back home to keep with my training.

A Very Belated Happy Bday

So this post is very late, but I'm still posting it. Ambrea had her bday on August 18th. Our little girl is now 21. Crazy!! Seriously, where has the time gone? I can still remember the day she was born. Which I think is the case for most moms. She was a tiny 6 lb baby, and is still very tiny. And she had her dad wrapped around her finger from the moment he saw her.

Ray recently came across this picture of her. She is in 7th grade. She could remember all the details of what she was wearing. Gma Shaw had taken her to get that shirt, and she loved it. Obviously if she chose to wear it in her school picture :).

In our family when it is someones bday we have a birthday dinner for them on Sunday. They get to choose the whole meal, whatever they want. Well, this year I kinda wanted to do a "fun" cake for her. She said that was fine, as long as it was chocolate. Her favorite colors are purple and orange. We had gotten some purple chargers in at work for Halloween and Ambrea had commented on how cool they were. I knew then I wanted to put her cake on one. The cake didn't turn out quite as cute as I had envisioned it, but it wasn't ugly at least. And I know for a fact the cake wasn't as
good as Natalees's Texas sheet cake that Ambrea usually chooses
for her dessert but hey, it wasn't awful.

Hope you had a good bday Ambrea. We love you and are so proud of you and proud to have you as our daughter.

More Info...

I forgot to mention in the last post.....Ashton grew an inch over the summer, so he is now 5'3" and is up to 74 lbs. That's 2 more pounds than what he weighed before surgery. We are going to try to get him off the lasix over the next month (lasix is a diaretic) and after 6 months try to get off the oxygen. He only uses it at night but Dr. Day wants to see if we can get clear off it.

Dr. Day kind of acted stunned today at how well Ashton is doing. When we went to see him after the first surgery he told Ashton that he was surprised Ashton had made it through everything. UCLA would send updates to Dr. Day daily and after those couple rough days we had we think he was surprised to see us there. Ashton has been a fighter from before he was even born and continues to be tough. How many of us could go through even half of what he's been through?

Great Appt.

We had Ashtons appointment with the cardiologist in Salt Lake this morning. It was one of the best appointments we have ever had. First they did an ultrasound. They said everything looked good with that. They could see blood flowing where it should be and not a whole lot of backflow. This means that there is now very little blood that isn't getting oxygen when it goes out to his body. And this was proven by his SAT's. This is how much oxygen is in his blood. Normal is mid 90's. Before surgery Ashtons was an average of 75-78. That is why he always looked so blue and didn't have much energy. He had a lot of blood that would never get to his lungs to get oxygen. When they checked his SAT's today they were 95. That is normal. We were so shocked. After surgery he was in the 80's and as he has healed it got up to 91. It would be 93 in LA because of being at sea level. But 95 today?! In Salt Lake?! Amazing. Once again we are counting our blessings for being guided to Dr. Laks and his knowledge and expertise.

Wall Decorations

Have I ever mentioned how awesome my husband is? Well, if I haven't, I'm saying it now. He is so patient and does so much to help me. I always have projects for him to do. This is one of my latest projects that he finished for me.

The old piece of wood is from my gma's house. Ray put hooks on it and hooked it to the wall so we can hang jackets and backpacks on. This is in the laundry room. We come into it from the garage so it is a very used room. Above it is an old window that Ray's brother Rod gave to us. We painted it black and then painted the windows with magnetic paint, which by the way, doesn't work so well. We are going to put metal sheets in instead. This is now our message board, instead of the fridge. And I still need to distress it so it matches the old board a little better.

Then this is in our entry way. Ray put all of this up for me a couple years ago but just last week we found this old window at the DI. (We love that place, but you have to go often to find treasures like this old window.) This window we didn't do anything to. The glass is even broken in a couple of the paynes. That makes it that much better.

Praying for Vania

Monica's little girl Vania, who is 3, had open heart surgery today so we are sending prayers for her and her family. I met Monica through IHH. We have never had the opportunity to meet in person yet, but I feel like Monica is one of my best friends. We pray that Vania will continue to do well and get to go home soon. Luv you guys.

First day of School

Back to school the kids go. You know, I don't get excited for them to go back. I love having them home.

This is Ashton on his way out to catch the bus.

Keanna didn't have to be to school till noon so she had to take her own pics. This one she is showing off her cute new back pack.

I can't believe how big they are. Ashton is now in 8th grade, so
he is in a new school. Keanna is a junior this year. Seriously, where does the time go? When they are little at times you think
you can't wait for them to grow up. I want it to slow down now.

11 Miles!

Woo hoo, we ran 11 miles this morning. Sounds really good, right? Well, ya it does, until we look at the training schedule and see where we should be.

In March, before our crazy summer started, I was already half way trained for the marathon. We had just run a half marathon in February and I could go run 10 miles with the people I run with at any given time. But then our life got so crazy. With being gone so much I wasn't able to run. After having not run for a month, we got home and I figured I could just pick up from where I had left off. Well, it doesn't work that way. I strained a muscle in my thigh. But because I'm so bull headed I continued to run. I figured it would just go away. Nope, it got worse. So much so it hurt to walk. So I started seeing a chiropractor. After seeing him for a month and not running at all it started to feel better. But then we headed back to LA. Anyways, after all was said and done it was probably close to 3 months that I hadn't run. And I love to run in the summer. It's light early in the morning, and no bulky clothes.

It's amazing how long it can take to condition your body, but how quickly you loose it. I had to start all over. Which means when I started running again I could only go run an easy 3 miles. Easy meaning at about a 10 minute mile pace. It is so frustrsting when your heart and mind want to do it but your body just won't allow it. We didn't do any speed training today. We've had an exhausting week so we were too tired to incorporate speed into the distance today. But on the days we are doing 4 or 5 I'm working in some speed. This means 9 minute mile at this time. My goal is to get back to what I was in March, between an 8:30 to 9 minute mile pace.

I absolutely love running. For me it's wonderful therapy. I love to go out and pound the pavement, push my body harder each time, and just think through things.

Aaaaah......Another Hole!

(Warning, this is very long.) Yesterday after Ashton got out of the shower he came to show me that the scab from the last chest tube had come off. I told him that was good, until I looked at it. Ugh, another hole. We are so paranoid now of "holes" after what happened with the last one. This is how it looked when he showed me.

When I looked at it this morning its looking like it will just scab over again. We will just have to watch it close.

When I had that first moment of panic of the possibility of another wound not healing I reflected back on what's happened since March.

March was originally when Ashton's surgery was supposed to happen. We wanted it to be done by the end of the month because of insurance reasons. Well, after making the 4 hour trek up north, pulling our trailer, so we had somewhere to stay, the next day the surgeon informed us he would not do the surgery. He said he did not feel he was capable of doing it. Now this surgeon is a very good surgeon. He is younger and is still getting experience under his belt. He has been at Primary Children's for about 4 years now. However the surgery Ashton needed done is not a common surgery, and pretty risky given the defects of Ashton's heart. Of course we were frustrated that he told us no after we had made the trip up there and already had an MRI. We had spent a lot of time planning and preparing for this. Physically and mentally. Not to mention what it cost us in gas to get there and back. So, our next step was to find someone who would do the surgery. We had a list of four surgeons. Our wonderful cardiologist (Dr. Day) said he would call the first dr. on our list for us. He is the surgeon who actually invented this surgery and Dr. Day had done his residency at UCLA, so he and Dr. Laks know each other. A few days later Dr. Day called and said Dr. Laks would like to meet us. So now we made
preperations to travel to UCLA for basically an interview. After
reviewing all of Ashtons records and talking with us Dr. Laks said he thought the surgery would be a success and he was willing to do
it. But let me remind you. This meant more time away from home,
off work, and expenses.

Now we had to make preperations, again, to get ready for surgery, mentally and physically. Added to these preperations was new insurance. We had to make sure everything was covered. Especially having it done out of state. And where to stay. Everything is soooo expensive in LA.

We were very lucky to have had Disneyland Tickets and Universal tickets donated to us. So we went a few days earlier than the surgery was planned so we could play first. The girls drove seperate and came with us. I know, I still need to blog about those fun days. We were able to get an inexpensive hotel for those few nights but its an hour plus away from the hospital so we couldn't stay there after the surgery. The girls drove back home the day of the surgery. How blessed we are to have such good kids. They were here by themselves for a long time, but they took care of things that needed to be done at home.

Not only was it hard to be away from them, but we were there all alone. No visitors other than our son Nate, Ray's Dad and 2 brothers for 4 hours one day. Thats why all the texts and comments really meant a lot to us. But we aren't ones to just sit back. We made friends while we were there. Now we have friends in CA and HI.

And as I look back on the surgery, WOW! It was such an extensive and risky surgery. One of the cardiologists at UCLA told us, as Ashton was having an ultrasound, that he and some other Dr's really didn't think it was possible. As we were watching the ultrasound and he was pointing things out, he was just amazed at how well Ashton's heart was doing. But we can never forget the scare Ashton gave us when we almost lost him. We remember it all so well. However he is such a fighter and the fact that he had an excellent medical team working on him, and not to forget the most important part, there were many many blessings being offered in our behalf, He pulled through it. Surgery was on Wednesday April 13th. He didn't get the breathing tube out until Sunday. He came out of surgery with 3 chest tubes, but over the course of a couple days he had 3 more put in. Yep, thats 6. Not so comfy. On Mon and Tue just to get Ashton out of bed and into a special chair next to the bed exhausted him. Then when Ashton started to walk he could only go 5 feet, then back to bed he went. Ashton was released from the hospital on Fri the 22nd. That same day I flew to SL to go to my gma Shepherds funeral. It was so good to see the other kids, but not under good circumstances. We were not released to come back home to Utah until the following Fri.

Then let me remind you that a couple months after the surgery we had to go back to LA for yet another surgery because the bottom of the incision would not heal. What was supposed to be an out patient surgery turned into a 4 day hospital stay and yet another chest tube. This is why we kind of panic when Ashton has wounds that won't heal.

We know we were meant to go to UCLA. Dr. Laks has given Ashton a new life. As hard as these past 6 months have been, we are grateful for being guided to such a great hospital and medical team. We don't feel like we have had much of a summer. Between going to LA and SL for dr appt's and other travels we have had to make, we are kind of tired. There are some nights I wake up in the night and can't remember where I am, which bed I'm sleeping in at the time. It feels so good to be back home, with the girls. And I know Keanna especially, is thankful to only have 16 year old responsibilities again. :)
We have such an amazing family, We love you kids!!! We have also a great network of friends, thank you!! We are truly blessed.

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday......me. My bday was on Thursday. I have to tell you, the best part of the day, besides all the bday wishes I received, were the things my kids did for me. It started out with bday wishes texts. Then when Ray and I got home from our run Keanna had put a sign on the garage for me (she left for girls camp that morning). Then when I went to work, as usual, Ambrea met me as I clocked in. She always goes with me to the office to get a radio etc etc. But today when we got to the front of the store two other employees were there and the three of them started laughing. I couldn't figure out what was so funny. I finally turned around and Ambrea had made me a Happy Birthday poster on neon green poster board that every one had signed and had it displayed at the front of the store.

Then not long after I got home from work Nate and the kids came. Such a great gift. Poor little Jaxon wasn't feeling too great though. But after some tylenol and some loves he was doing better and we headed to the water park. I know, we go there every year, and every year we post pictures from there, but its a fun place to go. And when you live in the kind of heat we have here (100 plus this time of year) the only way you can stand to be outside is to be wet. So we ate pizza and played in the water. But new this year is a carousel. So of course we had to go for a ride.

The pics are kind of blurry but in the first one you can see Savannah in the front and me Jaxon and I think Nate in the back. The second pic is of Ambrea and her cute boyfriend :) Tyson.