Let's talk communication

Are there ever times when you feel like you cannot figure out why your message is not getting across to someone? Why maybe what you said has been taken out of context? How someone's childhood can really affect their communication and trust levels? Why it is so important to communicate your feelings to others? How being cool, calm, and collected really can make a difference? This section of my blog is to help with all of these questions, concerns, and more!

There are so many resources out there that I love and totally incorporate into my life to help me become a better person and more effective communicator. We are only in control of ourselves. However, we have the ability to understand and communicate with others to create an open, loving, and healthy relationship. I can't wait to share some of these great resources I use and continue to find to throughout life!!

When a mess just happens to pull at my heartstrings

Who has ever woken up to a huge mess in their kids room!?! ME. THIS GIRL RIGHT HERE! Normally I am not too happy about it and the kids spend the morning cleaning it up. Now if they wake up and they are playing in their room, totally fine. My kiddos, however, were sound asleep when I saw that a hurricane must have swept through their room. 

Who has ever woken up to a huge mess in their kids room!?! ME. THIS GIRL RIGHT HERE! Normally I am not too happy about it and the kids spend the morning cleaning it up. Now if they wake up and they are playing in their room, totally fine. My kiddos, however, were sound asleep when I saw that a hurricane must have swept through their room.

After we woke them up I just calmly said "boys, what happened in here?" Lynn said "Oh mom, Stephen made the book mess because he was trying to find The BFG." Most any other book would have made me say, "alright boys, clean it up before you can do anything else." But nope, this book is special right now.

Ever since my husband's brain surgeries he has been reading chapter books to our boys every night. This may seem like not such a big deal, but to us it is! It has been a huge part of his recovery. Reading does not come easy for him, and this has been such a fun activity that the boys absolutely cherish with their dad! Not only does it serve a purpose for David, these boys have been able to lay down and relish in the words from each page, letting their imaginations run wild! We got the Roald Dahl book collection from Costco and have been going through it one book at a time. Each time they start a new book, David writes the date on the inside of the cover. Whenever they finish he then writes the date they finished. The boys have LOVED this special time with daddy each night!! I love that they are into chapter books at such a young age too!! Major mommy excitement over here!! WOOT WOOT!

Costco Roald Dahl Collection

What are some special activities that you hold near and dear to your heart?? I want to hear about them in the comments below!

Oahu, Hawaii

We are so excited to announce an upcoming trip to Oahu, Hawaii!!! I will be sure to post all about our favorite sites, eateries, snorkel spots, and resources planning the trip. Until then...

PNW Local

Cannot wait to share some amazing Pacific Northwest locations, eats, and fun! Growing up in the PNW has been a dream. No matter where I travel to or how far I go, I could never give up the lush green tree, beautiful landscape, gorgeous mountains, and simple weather. There are so many places to explore...let's check them out together! 

A Plan

Prepare for a great awakening. A blog facelife, if you will. A year full of inspiration. As my oldest went off to Kindergarten this year, I realized time is really ticking. Like full on hyper-speed.

My days have changed. I only have my two littles with me at home during the day now. Did you know that Kindergarten in our area is a FULL DAY? Is that nationwide? I have know idea. I thought I was going to bawl like a baby when my oldest trotted off like a big boy with his Batman vs. Superman backpack on and velcro shoes ready for some serious recess time. However, I didn't. I was so excited for him. He is mister social and was so ready to learn and grow that the transition went a little more like "bye mom, love you! Oh can I take the bus home?" When did he get so big!?!

I am harboring my time with my other two littles because soon enough they will be bouncing out the door with their brother ready to make Pokemon trades on the bus, go on amazing field trips, learn how to read in the blink of an eye, and count to infinity and beyond!

As time keeps going, I am quickly learning that I need to have a plan. A plan for when ALL THREE of my kids go to school. WILL I EVEN BE ABLE TO EMOTIONALLY GET THROUGH THAT TIME? Yes, because I have a plan. Right?!? That should help, right?? We will test those emotions when the time comes, but as for now. Let's get this blogging started!!

So it begins....

Last night we had a fabulous night on our way up to Seattle. We got to relax and drive while having some of the best conversations. As we got to Tacoma, we decided we were starving and needed to eat. My mom got David a gift card to one of our favorite restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory. So we had an incredible dinner and cheesecake!!! It was such a sweet treat to eat out before the big day. Plus David's favorite dessert is Cheesecake. Thanks momma!!

We got to our hotel/apartment in Seattle and it has been fantastic as well as so accommodating. We are so grateful for the hospitality house that UW can offer us, especially at a discount. As many of you know, Seattle is pretty darn expensive so we are very fortunate to be in the situation we are in!!! After settled in, the reality of surgery hit. It began to be a very emotional time. As we held each other and said words of comfort and prayers we knew that we were in the right place and doing the right thing. Knowing that does make it easier, but does not take away the fear of complications. We have absolutely felt of everyone's prayers and fasting. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!! We cannot express enough that there has been so much comfort, peace, and love surrounding us that we are almost overwhelmed by the it all. I felt like I have not been able to reach back out to those who have reached out to us and cannot keep up with everyone. I pray that everyone can understand. Please know that one of the main reasons I am blogging everyday during this experience is to keep everyone posted on David and our family as well as reach out to as many as we can. During such emotional times I do no do too well communicating. I am sorry for that. I know others do not expect things in return, but please know that I have read, laughed, cried, and even snorted at the wonderful, loving, and hysterical messages that have been sent our way!

My mother in law Diane and I are patiently waiting for David's first surgery to be over. We had a great time talking with the nurses, anesthesiologist, neurosurgeon resident and neurosurgeon. It has been a very emotional morning, with lots of words of hope from the staff, stories to keep our minds else where, filling us with so much comfort as our eyes are blurred from the welling of tears. As we watched David being rolled away to surgery I could only think of him in the arms of our Heavenly Father. I had a very pure image last night of his guardian angels surrounding him in surgery. One being our sweet daughter Evelyn and another being his Grandfather Elden. I am so grateful for the love and guidance of our Heavenly Father. Christ has felt every ounce of fear, anxiety, and emotion that David is feeling. That is such a sacred blessing to me. To know that I cannot quite understand everything that he is going through, but that it is okay because he is not and will never be alone.

He is among one of the bravest. David is such an example to me of courage, humility, humbleness, faith, and love. He is the best father to our children and husband to me. I cannot even begin to express how blessed I am for his companionship. He is my very best friend! I could not ask for a more loving, kind, gentle, hard working and not to mention gorgeous husband. He is the best example to our children that I could ever ask for. He makes mistakes and is not afraid to admit it. He battles immense adversity with medical trials and is absolutely so humble and positive. He has had more than his fair share of difficult times with work, creating our business, and life in general. These are all trails that so many others have too. His ability to push through, keep his head up, always remain honest and have absolute integrity is completely admirable. I love David with all of my heart and he is truly my hero.

The 6+ hours of surgery cannot go by fast enough. I will keep you all posted on here each day. He will have his second surgery on August 22nd and I know it will being another whirlwind of emotions. Thank you for your continued prayers, love, and support for our family. Thank you for the gifts for our trip, they have been so incredibly needed and loved!!!!! Until later....

         

The Epilepsy Update

This post has taken me months to write. There have been feelings of doubt, anxiety, fear, sadness, hopefulness, and stress. I have not had the courage or time to sincerely sit down and gather my thoughts about what is to come. We have been going back and forth to the UW Medicine Epilepsy Center in Seattle, WA at Harborview Medical Center. There we have met with a Neurologist, Neurosurgeon, and Neuropsychologist. We have had many phone calls arranging our visits and figuring out David's future surgery. We have waited weeks for the Epilepsy team to come together and determine the best possible solution for David's Epilepsy.

Initially we were determined that he needed the Neuropace (a pace maker for the brain to stop seizures before they happen.) We started his medical journey with that goal in mind. However, after the Epilepsy team went over all of his past tests and medical history they have determined a different solution. They believe that there is a localized place in the brain that was not taken out during his first surgery or has developed after his first surgery. They are trying for a seizure free solution and are determined this is the right path for David. At first I absolutely lost it. I thought, there is no way that we are going to go through what David went through at 17...again! Especially now as a Husband and Father. Then as we heard more, met with the neurosurgeon and discussed elaborate details, we felt at peace. We feel like this truly is the right path for David. We are willing to take any opportunity to make him seizure free. His seizure activity has only continued to increase as they are not fully controlled by his medication. He has done every medication (or medication within specific families) under the sun. He has grand mal seizures every 4-6 weeks and auras throughout those 4-6 weeks. Each aura is also a seizure. Each grand mal seizure has truly been heart-wrenching to watch. He is completely out of control of his body, terrified, and unconscious.

Sometimes these seizures happen when we are in our home, out and about, or in the middle of no where stuck in the car. Any place, any time we have tried to look for the positives that come from the situation. There have been many instances where others have helped us, prayed for us, given David a blessing and so forth. We are so appreciative of others!! Also, Heavenly Father's love and protection during this lifelong medical trial has provided us with absolute gratitude! We could not be more thankful for a loving Heavenly Father.

David is continuing to prepare for his brain surgery that is scheduled for mid August. His first surgery will be to open up his skull and place electrodes on the brain. Then they will monitor him for a week to find out the exact location of the seizure activity. If the activity is in the language section, they will stop as soon as they find that out because they cannot risk an operation on the language section of the brain. If the seizure focus is close to the language section they will operate on David while he is awake to make sure his language is still functional. If the localization of seizure activity is anywhere else, they will plan to operate on David. His second surgery will be one week after the first. During the second surgery they will take out the part of the brain that the seizure activity is coming from. They will most likely attach a new piece of skull to his current one and discard the original piece of skull take took off. Then we will hope and pray for a rapid, beautiful, seizure free recovery.

In David's first brain surgery he had a stroke, lost his ability to read and write as well as got an infection that caused him to be on a pic line for months. We are praying with all our might that he can avoid these other problems that may occur due to surgery. He is such a strong, courageous, loving, kind, generous, valiant, and beautiful person. This was not in any way an easy decision to make. We prayed as much as we could until we received an answer. Even after receiving the answer, I prayed to make sure it was right. To come to the conclusion of another brain surgery was very difficult, especially because there are no promises to becoming seizure free. All we are going off of is hope and faith. However, hope and faith is enough for us! We will have a very busy, emotional, hopeful summer and fall as we also have our third baby due on November 6th. Baby number three has been such a blessing to us that even though the timing is crazy, we would not want things any other way.

Whew! Some of my biggest fears about David's surgery were written out in this post. I have learned to open up and it has been so much better. After too many anxiety attacks, I handed everything to the Lord and the biggest weight was lifted off of my shoulders. Thank you Heavenly Father!!! Thank you to so many friends and family that have helped us on this journey thus far. We are forever grateful for you and your kindness. We are prepared for what the future brings and know that we are never alone.