Our Little Miracle

Seven Years Ago Today

Seven years ago today, our precious Ryan underwent a very unexpected surgery that resulted from a stroke he had while I was pregnant.  I had never heard of something like this before, and it was very scary for Corey, me, and the entire family.  We didn't know what to expect in the unknown scary future, but we went forward with faith.  With fasting and prayers and trust in our Heavenly Father, we found strength to handle anything that would come.  Now, we have a big healthy 7 year old that we can't imagine our lives without.  Who knew that with a start like this, we would have a perfect, fun loving, wonderful, miracle named Ryan.

I Love Couponing!

Okay, I don't have a picture, but I wanted to share what I got tonight at Albertsons.  They say you aren't a true couponer until you take a picture of your groceries and post it on your blog to brag.  Well, I have taken pictures in the past, but haven't posted them.  This time, I'm just going to break it down for you.  Right now Albertson's has coupon booklets in the store that have 2 coupons on the back that are doublers.   That means you use that coupon with a manufacturer's coupon and it doubles the amount of the manufacturers coupon up to $1.  So this is what I did tonight:  (You can only  use 2 doublers in a single transaction, so I did 5 transactions!)

5 Packages of Tortillas
8 Jars Prego Pasta Sauce
2 Bags Salad
1 Package Cookies
1 Loaf French Bread
2 Bags Sunflower Seeds
4 Bags of Variety of Chips (For lunches)
All of this for a grand total of $30.35!  Actually, one of the tortillas I grabbed the wrong kind.  I got the ones that weren't on sale, so actually I spent $1 too much.  But over all, pretty dang cool!  It would have been a lot lower if I hadn't have bought the chips, but I am saving them for school lunches and Disneyland (which we are going at the end of September).   I have more doubler coupons to use tomorrow, but I have to do it in sections because I don't want to mess up....like grab the wrong kind of tortillas!

Bad News, Bad, Bad, Bad

I went to the ear, nose, and throat doctor on Friday because I've had a weird tonsil for a couple months now that isn't strep.  I get strep often, but I haven't had it in about a year.  My right tonsil is swollen and covered in whitish, yellowish spots.  It doesn't hurt, I don't feel it, it doesn't bother me....but I knew it wasn't right.  A couple of weeks before camp, I went to the doctor thinking it was strep but the tests came back negative.  After medication, it did not make any difference.  So, I finally made the appointment with the ENT and these are his exact words, "That is one weird looking tonsil, and I see a lot of weird looking tonsils.  That needs to come out."  DANG!  I knew he was going to say that, but I agree.  It needs to come out to figure out what's wrong with it.  I have a nagging feeling that it isn't something to fool around with.  So I am scheduled to have surgery on August 17th followed by a liquid, soft food diet....which could work to my advantage!  Maybe a pound or two?  Anyway, I am not excited in the least.  Pray for me!  I am so not looking forward to that!  I've been collecting low fat recipes for home made frozen pops and smoothies so I am not tempted to eat ice cream!  Poor wo is me!

Say What?

This morning, Cayden and I were being lazy on my bed watching TV and it was a rare opportunity for me to actually be watching "my" shows with any of my kids with me!  We were watching Top Chef and someone said something about the food a particular chef cooked and the chef said something sassy back.  Cayden looked at me and said, "She shouldn't have said that.  You know that thing in the back of your head that tells you not to say something?  She doesn't have that."  You've got to love kids!

All better!

Just to let everyone know, Ryan is all better!  I can't believe how well and fast he healed!  Once all the blisters popped and all that skin came off, he seriously looked like a burn victim!  His entire back was peeling, so everyday he would take his shirt off and tell me to peel his back!  I know that sounds gross, but I really like to do it!  Not on the new skin, just the places that were safe to peel.  I know, I know, some people tell me that you aren't supposed to peel the skin...but I did anyway!  I slathered him with really good lotion that we use on him anyway because he gets really dry skin patches sometimes.  I also put some skin healing ointment on the really red parts of his shoulders and arms.  I was worried that he was going to scar or have permanent skin discoloration.  Nope!  All better!  I have learned from a few people now about swim shirts.  I had never heard of them before, but now that I see them I'm like..duh!  I've seen those!  So I will be trying to track some down for both my boys.  Thanks for all the ideas!  I don't have a picture to put on of Ryan just yet, but I will try to get one on soon!  The human body is an amazing thing how it will heal itself!

You Need to Wear Sunscreen...Oh Yes You Do!

The Kids went up to Grandma Shirlee's early last week and spent the day on Thursday swimming at the Veyo pool.  Ryan had a shirt on half the time until they ate lunch and he took it off because he was dripping water everywhere.  Well, it seems that his shirt was so awesome that someone else needed to have it and it disappeared.  Grandma put SPF 50 sunscreen on him and they continued to swim.  As you can see, the sun and Ryan's skin did not get along.

Grandma took Ryan to the doctor Friday who said that although he had such high SPF on, the water acted as a magnifying glass and just cooked him.  Grandma did everything she was supposed to do, it's just that the sun got the better of both of them.  Grandma and Ryan were the only ones to get sunburned, Cayden and Abby are okay.  We let the blisters pop themselves, and just cleaned up the "dripppings" as they happened.  You would think that he would be in a lot of pain, but he was such a good, strong, brave guy.  He slept on his stomach, and only cried for Grandma for a minute.  Although once Corey and I got there on Friday, he had a bit of a melt down seeing mom and dad.

This one is after the big one on his arm popped.  Most of it was liquid, but then there would be some that had the consistancy of gel.  It was wierd!

So for any of you who think that you don't need to wear sunscreen, you may want to think twice.  Can you imagine if he hadn't had any protection on?  What it would have looked like then!

Here is his skin on Monday, only 4 short days later.  The blisters were all gone on Monday morning, and his skin got very moist and supple when he was playing and got all sweaty.  The skin just came right off.  We left his shirt off for a while to let him "dry" off.We kept him cool while the blisters were there and only gave him one bath that washed off a lot of the .... liquid residue.  Since the blisters are gone, we've been putting lots of aloe and really good lotion on.  Today (Tuesday) he is peeling up a storm.  Not on the red new skin parts, but the rest of his back.  Wow!  All in all, it's been quite the holiday.  Just in case you didn't get the point....WEAR SUNSCREEN, HAT, CLOTHES...Just don't let the sun see you ever.  Just kidding!  But, you won't see Ryan in a pool the rest of this summer without a shirt on, that's for sure!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July Everyone!  We spent the weekend at Grandma Shirlee's and watched the fireworks up on the hill that were set off the Dixie hill and the Stadium.  I don't know the real names of the places, so sorry!  They were lots of fun to watch.  There was even a smiley face one that the kids thought was cool.  We planned on doing my families BBQ and fireworks on Monday night.  Come to find out (on Monday) that it was illegal to do ANY fireworks after the 4th!  Reminder...Monday was the 5th.  My niece works for a fireworks provider and hooked us up pretty sweet.  Unfortunately, all those great fireworks are still in the back of her car.  DANG!  We were really looking forward to having our own great fireworks show.  Now, they will sit in storage until next year.  We were really tempted to just do them anyway, but the fine if you were caught was $1000.00 and no one was willing to chip in!  It was a fun 4th of July anyway, but there was no Shock and Awe.