Oops, Sorry :(

Tim has politely informed me that I have been slacking on my blogging responsibilities. And going back and reading the last post, I will have to agree with him. So, first my apologies, and then second, a quick update. It's hard to remember to blog when things are running smooth, regardless, I will try and be better about making regular posts.

In my previous post, I had mentioned a clotted PICC line. Tim was planning on taking the kids on the Trax train to visit the Christmas Village in Ogden with my brother Darren and his kids that night and weren't sure what would happen now that Ethan's line was clotted. Well, we contacted the on-call nurse and she too had plans that evening to visit the Christmas Village! So, Tim actually met up with her there and they were able to fix his line. I didn't go and missed "all the fun". At the time I was still struggling with the blah's and so Jenn (my sis-in-law) and I went and got pedicures while the guys took the kids.

Ethan has since had his PICC line pulled (on New Year's Eve) and has loved being able to have baths and showers again. I was going to make an event out of his first bath since his surgery but I was sleeping after one of my graveyard shifts and Tim let him get in the tub with Gavin while they were getting ready for church. So no big event with new tub toys and pictures, but he is clean and happy all the same.

Christmas was really nice. The kids all loved their gifts and I ended up really enjoying myself and having a nice day. Tim surprised me with some beautiful diamond earrings and a garnet bracelet which I am sure helped pull me out of my funk. Now that I am a little bit removed from things I can see how emotionally stressed and tired I was even though at the time I didn't think I was.

New Year's Eve was also a lot of fun. We had all of my family (which is a HUGE group) come over to my house for a night of food and fun. We played games and visited and ate way too much. I had already gained some weight from the stress of Ethan's surgery, but that combined with the holidays didn't help out much. I have already started losing some of it but I still have a long way to go. I am jumping on the weight loss bandwagon and I am hoping to not fall off again any time soon.

Also, since the last post we have had another cardiology appointment. They decreased Ethan's Lasix to just once a day. So we have 4 pills in the morning and just 1 pill at night. I can't tell you how nice it is not to have to set my alarm clock countless times a day to keep track of medication times. They said that he looks great and that they don't need to see him for 6 months! Yeah! We still need to keep him away from germs over the winter months, but honestly, I am starting to feel our life getting back to "normal". Also, just in case you were wondering, Ethan's CRP level has never actually gone back to normal. They drew some labs at his appointment last Wednesday and although down it was still 1.4 (which was down from 1.9). Since Ethan has been asymptomatic, our Cardiologist felt that it was close enough to normal and trending in the right direction that we will call it good.

So, as you can see, things are settling down. Tim got a new calling at church to be 1st counselor in the Elder's Quorum. I've started back to work and although I was a little nervous to go back after having 2 months off, it was really nice to see some friends and to start making a little bit of money to help cushion things a little bit.

I apologize that this post is long and without pictures. I just figured I'd better get it all written and then in the next few days (or week) I will do a post just of pictures to get things all caught up.

I hope that your holidays were memorable and that you will all have a blessed new year. Thank you for your love and support during these last few months. I don't know how we would have made it without all of your love, prayers, and support.

---Allison