My friend Maddie

We lost a dear friend yesterday. My heart is aching and my spirit is weak. Madison Mecum was one of the purest spirits I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I always kind of felt like she was too good and pure for the rest of us, too good for this world.
She was a hit by a car. The driver was a classmate of hers, both just 13 years old. I can't tell you how many times the thoughts have run through my head, "if that girl just didn't pick up her aunt's car keys," "if Maddie had only gone to her own bus stop that day," "if she had only been walking a few steps behind where she was at that time..."
I know those thoughts don't help. I am just so sad. I'm sad for me. Sad for her family. Sad for our neighborhood. I am mostly sad for her family though. We love this sweet family. They live just up the street a few houses. We have them over for dinner and games, Maddie and her sister are two Young Women I serve in my calling. Maddie is one of Gracee's favorite babysitters. Her older sister, Marnie comes over often just to talk with me and Russ about life. Her mom, Paige is also my dear friend who does massage/piano lesson trades with me. The Mecum girls are very important to us. Their dad died in a car crash in 2005. Paige and Marnie only have each other now. They could use financial help and have an account set up for donations. If that is something any of you are interested in helping with, let us know.
I know we will see Maddie again someday, for that I look forward to. I know she is much happier where she is with her dad. I know all of that, but it doesn't change the fact that I am really sad. Sad for us, not for her. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of the Plan of Salvation. I know this pain would be much more hopeless without the knowledge that our loving Savior and Heavenly Father have prepared a way that we can all be together with them again.

We miss you Maddie. We love you. 'Til we meet again.

My birthday

I got the idea from my brother, Scotty to celebrate my birthday for a whole week! What a great idea! I figured my 30th was a great year to start. Here are some of the things we did at random times in the day, whenever we could fit them in:

My birthday week started with a family dinner at the Hannigs for me and our niece, Emrie. My sis-in-law made me brownies with nuts-my fav! Thanks Ryanne!

Went to our first BYU home game! Go Cougs! (Thx for the tix Smiths!)

Went to dinner

Enjoyed another tandem bike ride in the canyon (an annual tradition on my bday) but this year we did 23 miles! Woohoo! That was about as adventurous as we got, because all of the adventurous stuff would've been mostly just adventurous for the pocket book!

(Russ must REALLY love me to do this every year!)

Thx for the lunch Kenz! What a sweetie.

Went to Timpanogos story telling festival

Went to WAFFLE CONE Wednesday at TCBY and took cute pix of Gracee playing at the mall

Watched episodes of The Closer

Had a game night!!

Went and did a temple session together

Did and FHE at Discovery park with the Smiths with homemade ice cream, yum! Thanks Kenz!

My friend, Kim, threw me a shin dig at Kenzie's house where we dressed up from the eras that I've been alive in. (ok, I confess...we cheated and included the 70's! The 70's are irresistible!)

Isn't Russ's tough face so cute here?

Thanks Kim and Kenz, you guys rock! So do those "mom jeans" Kenz is wearing..yes!

The most touching thing ever, I was completely blown away--Kenzie made me a book with a bunch of people who'd responded to her with "30 things they love about Sus". I cried when I opened it and realized what it was and all the people who responded. I was so deeply touched by everybody's words. I will cherish it always. I know I will read it during low times in my life and be lifted and reminded of what amazing people grace my life. Thank you so much Kenzie and everybody who was able to add to the book!

Lunch with dad

Here is our first try with using video on our new camera. We have this tradition we've just started where almost every day me and Gracee go and bring lunch to Russ. It has been good for her to actually see us all three together a little more often, sad, but true! ENJOY, more to come!

I'm a big girl now!

This picture does not do justice to how FILTHY my hands and legs were!!

Hey guys! This is me after having SUCCESSFULLY changed my bike tire BY MYSELF! I've gotten flats several times while on the surface streets and have had to call my dad, my father in law and even got picked by my father in law once because neither of us could get it on right. I also was helped once by a fellow road biker who was driving to work and had mercy on my poor pitiful figure alongside the road, fussing with it. I even watched a youtube tutorial after the last frustrating experience. I'm so proud of myself. And it only took me 24 minutes! (I say that in jest cuz I know that is incredibly slow...)

Focus Simplification Plan

Here is an excerpt from a recent journal entry:

I pray VERY regularly to have help balancing my life. I think I might have received a little answer to that prayer today. I just read a few verses that contain the words "wisdom" and "order". It is apparent to me that this is the Lord's way. I like to do so many things. I am the main one that puts it all on my plate. I was looking at my older neighbor's vegetable garden yesterday, having thoughts of longing and regret that my garden didn't look more like his. I was having regrets that I didn't plant sooner, garden more, or take a gardening class. All of the sudden, in the forefront of my mind--louder than the other thoughts--I thought, "He's in a totally different stage of life than you!!!!! This isn't your season for perfecting gardening. Go ahead and dabble if you like, but stop comparing yourself to others!" I've had little thoughts like that before, but it hit me very profoundly yesterday. Here are a list of things I do/want to do with my spare time (not in order of relevance):

Home improvement projects and tasks, gardening, cleaning, and organization

guitar, piano, singing, harmonica

blogging

making online books/scrapbooks

massage profession

race training

scripture study

learning new recipes, baking all of our bread and granola

serving others

quilting/sewing

Now obviously, things like massage, scriptures, race training and service should and will take up the same amount of time every week. But the other things can definitely take their turns. I had this idea that I can focus on one major thing each month. I can work on those things during naptime and on free evenings where I am not working or spending time with Russ.

So far, I've been doing this for almost all of August. This has been deemed my "home improvement focus month". My house needed recovery after this crazy summer. We've been doing projects and I've been focusing on cleaning too.

It's been really good for me to choose a focus and only hone in on that during non Gracee and Russ time. I feel like it helps me see things in perspective throughout the day, so that instead of running to do a blog post while Gracee plays I will either dream up something for dinner or go play with her. I think Gracee has appreciated having a little more of my undivided attention too.

I might post some pictures of the projects up later. Anyway, thanks for reading, if you stuck with me through this whole thing! I'll keep you posted on my simplification efforts!

I need some ideas!!!

Ok, folks. Does anybody know of some fun and exciting things to do for a 30th birthday?? I hiked Timp the morning of my 25th birthday. I'd do that again, but I want to be with Russ on my birthday, and he doesn't love to hike. My family suggested river rafting, which we are looking into--but might be hard to pull of since Russ has class at 6pm the night of my birthday. We normally go tandem biking in the canyon for my birthday--but I want to do something different since it's my 30th. I also suggested bungee jumping, hangliding, and sky diving--but Russ isn't crazy about those ideas either.

Any Ideas??

Tonsillectomy--lessons learned

Okay, so I read quite a few informative blogs that helped me learn some tricks through my tonsillectomy recovery. I didn't want to write about the happenings each day while I was going through it, because I would've felt like a whiner. Now that I am through it, I want to blog about it so that others can learn some of the tips that I did.

Day 1-3

I felt very flu like and could barely make it 2 hours into my pain medication. I am allergic to Morphine and I get emotional on Lortab and I vomit with Percoset. I was given tylenol with codeine and some Perc with anti-nausea pills. Though it was a nice effort on my doctor's part, neither of those two kept me feeling human. I constantly felt shakey and flu like.

Day 3-4

I noticed bumps on these two days on my face. It turned into a rash once it reached my neck, chest and tummy. It was pretty mild. But once it had

a few days to run its course, my face started peeling off, the way people's faces do with acutane. Weird.

Day 5

On this morning, I decided to try to manage the pain without narcotics. I felt much more human, though I couldn't hardly eat or drink anything and was very weak and tired.

Day 6

I bled profusely this night because I think because I was trying to get phlegm out, or maybe because I got a massage earlier that day. The doctor's office said it was okay to get a massage, but I get pretty deep ones, that involve a lot of neck

stretches. It bled for about 10 minutes total, with me standing over the sink and gargling with water and spitting out tons and tons of blood. At one point, Gracee started screaming because the sounds I was making in the bathroom scared her. I had to come out with my hand under my chin to catch the blood and smile to her across the hallway to reassure her I was alright, then she was happy as a lark. The tip I learned that finally got the bleeding to stop was gargling with a huge glass of ice water.

Day 7

Maybe due to the bleeding episode the night before, I woke up this morning with pain too intense to handle without the help of narcotics. I took 2 more final doses of tylenol with codeine this day. I even hobbled over to a playgroup, where I didn't talk much and felt like I had the flu the whole time--but at least I was out of the house! It felt so good to at least pretend I felt good.

That night I remembered that I have a bunch of

DoTerra essential oils. I texted my friend who knows a ton about them and asked what she would suggest. I am so glad I did! Everything started to get better EXPONENTIALLY faster after I started doing what she said. She had me swishing and drinking water with the following oils and blends: On Guard, Lavendar, lemon, and Melaleuca. I would always finish off with the On Guard because it has clove in it, which numbs everything up REALLY well!

Day 8

This was my first full day doing the oils instead of narcotics. The oils worked so well that I didn't hardly even have to take any OTC medication either for the rest of my recovery.

Day 10

At this point I was feeling much better and stronger. I still writhed in pain when I ate though. Here is my next tip: I discovered the beauty of WATER PIK! My mom has one of these and let me use one of her apparatus'. I put it on slow flow half way through my meals and at the end of them. It helped clean out anything and everything that was stuck under the flaps, gouges, and whatever other shapes there were in my scabs. This was the point it which I really started regaining strength and energy because I was fully free to eat most whatever I wanted--providing it wasn't acidic.

Day 17

Scabs are completely off at this point. Throat still gets tired very easily and especially when I shout. The reason my talking swallowing, singing and eating muscles are so sore and tired is because he had to cut deep into my mouth muscles to get those babies out because I'm an adult.

Day 19

Went to post op appointment today. Doc says things look good. The tightness and slight soreness is normal for another month. I have no restrictions--I can even sing again!!! Yea! I can shout and talk loud and for a long time =) if I want, with no soreness.