Surgery....:)

Life has been a little crazy the last few months. Jar has been busy with work and his Primerica. He sells life insurance and RRSP's...that kind of stuff. That has him working when he's not working, so he seems to be always working. It's good, but it's getting old real fast :) The girls are getting huge. Mackinley just turned 5!
We had a Pinkalicious birthday party for her. It was pretty cute. EVERYTHING was pink. I made the cupcakes to look like the ones that were in the book. I'm not really a cake/cupcake fan. I'd take a chocolate brownie over cake any day. These ones though were soooooo good! Seriously, I ate a lot of them and I was a little sad when the last 2 got eaten by my little monsters. Maybe I should make some more on this yucky rainy day!
Mackinley starts kindergarten this September! I am so not ready for this to happen. Mentally, emotionally, or just plain ready. She's grown up so fast and I do not like it! They do full days out here. She'll go every Monday and Wednesday and then every other Thursday. It will be good and I know she will love it. Macey on the other hand is going to go bananas without her here. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to sign her up for multiple different things just to keep her happy. It will be nice to have her all to myself though :)
I probably won't be blogging much in the near future either. I am having surgery in a month and I will be at my parents' house for a couple of weeks after. I'm so lucky to have them close enough and so willing to help us. That has been a huge factor in my decision to have this surgery. I am getting my right leg lengthened. If you think this sounds horrible, it probably will be. I'm going to try and stay positive and think it's not going to be as bad as I think it's going to be. Why am I having this done? Well, when I was 12 I broke my femur in a dirt bike accident and the growth plate stopped growing. I still had some growing to do, so I had surgery the following year to make my left leg stop growing as well. I have worn a lift in my right shoe ever since. I have bad knees now and I have scoliosis. My hips are sore and my sciatic acts up. A lot has to do with the fact that we were in a car accident 5 1/2 years ago and I sprained my SI joint. I was pregnant at the time as well, so the further along I got in the pregnancy the worse my pain. So between the leg difference, the injury, and being pregnant, I had the perfect pain trifecta! I have bad days and good days, but I am always in some form of discomfort. Mostly my hips, back, and neck. Not necessarily painful, but just uncomfortable because something is out and I can't crack it. It is getting worse though. I've spent a lot of time the last few months in bed just because my hips hurt so bad. I can get around fine, but it was worth looking into the surgery. A girl I know had the same surgery done about 4 weeks ago. That's what got me going with the whole idea. I didn't even know this surgery existed until I heard she was having it done. I asked her about it and who she was seeing and once I had the info I contacted my doctor to get a referral in. My doctor was away, but I had the choice to see the resident if I wanted. I had been waiting for this surgery for 18 years. I didn't want to wait any longer :) I booked with the resident and I'm sooooo glad I did! The wait time just to get in to see Dr. Buckley is about 6 months. That's just to see him. I don't know how long it takes after that to get surgery. I kind of skipped all of that. I was looking at around a year though to get in and have surgery and be better again. I heard about this surgery at Easter time, I have surgery July 8th and it will be 2-3 months to heal. So a grand total of 5 months from start to finish!
When the receptionist called me to set my first appointment up, she said they had a surgery date open on July 8th and if I could come up on June 6th to see him I could have that day if he thought I could use the surgery. I instantly said yes. I couldn't pass on such a great opportunity. It is scary though. I haven't had a lot of time to completely think about it. I have thought about it, but I was expecting a lot more time.I keep thinking if I would have waited to see my regular doctor the receptionist wouldn't have had my referral that day and I wouldn't have gotten in so fast.
Anyways, June 6th was yesterday. I took my xrays up with me and I met with 2 surgeons and 2 med students. I read up on my doctor and all I read was he was mean, abrasive, made people cry, so on and so on. He was supposed to be a brilliant orthopedic surgeon though. I was okay with this. I LOVED him. He was funny, to the point, concerned.....I knew he wouldn't mess around and I knew he wouldn't do something he wasn't comfortable with. He said normally he would turn me away. The leg length discrepancy was not quite large enough for them to normally operate. Mine is just under 1.5 cm and he said they like it to be at least 1.5 cm difference. But, because I was having such problems and I was determined to have it done he let me. What can I say, I'm really good at being persuasive :) He was concerned that normally someone with my problem wouldn't see much of a difference because their problems wouldn't be so bad. He didn't know if it was necessary to put me through the pain and the risk and have nothing change. I get that. I'm not going into this light heartedly. It will suck. There are risks. There could be complications. My leg could hurt for a long time after....it might not help the pain.....I could lose a leg......my life.......it could work and I could be pain free.
It's only been the last 5 years that it has gotten worse. I am 30. What am I going to be like in another 5 years? 10 years? 30 years? I am young and have a lot of life left in me. I want to enjoy it. I want to be able to run a marathon. I would like to be able to just walk around for the day with out my hip locking up or my back hurting so bad it takes a good 15 minutes to relax after I lay down because the pain is so bad. It is worth it to me.
I let him know how I feel ^ and I also told him that him telling me he won't do it is going to be harder for me to deal with than to actually have the surgery. I also told him that if I don't have it July 8th......he did try to get me to think about for a couple of months and then come back in.....that I most likely won't ever have it done. It was just too perfect this way. He consented, filled out my papers, and told me I owe him a bottle of wine :) He totally made my week, month, year!
So, I have a month until surgery. A month to get prepared. I have 17 days from the day of my surgery until I will be at home with girls all by myself. We are really good at taking it easy, so that is what we will do. I will be getting freezer meals ready, cleaning, and laundering so that I don't have to worry about it. Jar is good at helping out as well, so we will be good. I'm just thankful it worked out that we could stay at my mom's and have my sisters around to help watch the girls during the day. If this surgery wasn't in the summer and I had to do it at home by myself I don't know if I would be so gung ho about it. And if the surgery doesn't help with the pain like I'm hoping, at least my jeans won't wear out on the right side anymore :)

My giveaway!

Well, I might as well blog about this, since I'm trying to get everybody else to! If you don't know, I have been selling vinyl out of my home as a hobby for the last 4 years. I bought it for me to play with and selling it was just a bonus! I recently got into making hand stamped jewelry. I've seen it around and I bought some simple stamps to make some cute necklaces with some friends just before Christmas. It was so much fun! I didn't have the tools to make them look professional, but they were cute none the less.
The last couple of weeks I had some orders for the discs to go onto some FHE boards that I had made. They are magnetic and I made my magnets out my hand stamped discs and added some beads and charms to make the board uber cute! I think that's what the ball rolling and I debated on buying this HUGE starter kit. It was not cheap! It was not an easy decision! Jaron is still on strike. He is still working, but we can still feel the pinch. I decided to bite the bullet and buy it. I don't like doing things that are only half done or 'good enough'. So, it seemed necessary. I still need a few more things to get going the way that I would like, but soon I will be a stamping fiend!
I am having so much fun with it! I love being creative and being crafty. There is such a sense in accomplishment when you are done and you see what you have made. I seriously can't believe that I have made some really cute necklaces. There is a problem that comes with this though. Now that I am making my own necklaces pretty much from scrap, I seem to think that I need more designer stamps and more types of charms and beads and tools and metal and......well, you get the idea. I seriously have no patience when it comes to waiting to buy things that I think I need and that I know I will be buying eventually. I REALLY wish the strike would end!!!!!
Anyways, I will get to the point of this post now. Since I am starting a new adventure in the world of crafting I thought I would have a giveaway. The rules are simple. Go like my page on Facebook. It is called CreaTiffany's. Not CreaTiffany's Custom Vinyl......that is the old page. It will be removed once I have enough people liking my new page. So, go to the new page and like it. If you post in your facebook status about my giveaway you get one entry. If you blog about my contest you get another entry. If you buy over $15 dollars in vinyl you get another entry. If you buy a hand stamped item you get another entry. I will be making the draw on the 25th of this month. I figured I would leave enough time for people to decide what vinyl or jewelry they would like if they want some for the contest. The prize is for $40 worth of vinyl and a hand stamped necklace!
So, what are you waiting for?
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/CreaTiffanys/186902458013698

2011 so far

Well this year has proven to be interesting! A lot of change happening this year! Most of it good, but right now there is definitely a lot of stress that comes with it. The mine that Jar works for is on strike right now. They went on strike just over a week ago. Hopefully it doesn't last too long. He does have work until the strike is over, so that is good. He is working at a sawmill in Elko. He stays out there, so we don't see him from Monday morning until Saturday morning. Not ideal, but at least he has a job and it is only temporary.
Another change is Jar has started to work Primerica. He's taking his course and writing his exams in Calgary this weekend. He will be doing life insurance, RRSP's, and other financial planning. Hopefully it all goes well for him this weekend!
Those are the things that are stressing us out right now. Jobs and money......who would have thought? At least we are being taken care of and I am grateful for a hard working hubby! I'm also grateful for the connections that we have. We would be pretty hard up right now without them! So, I guess I can sacrifice a little bit and try really hard not to complain, because I know there are other families out there that aren't so lucky.
On to better news......I'm going to be an Auntie!!! Finally! My brother Bo and his wife Kimm are having a baby boy this summer! Jar and I have been the only ones married on both sides of our family up until last year. My brother and his sister both got married last year. Actually, my brother got engaged the night Jar's sister got married. I think that's how it went anyways. Pretty exciting stuff! Our kids have been the only grand kids as well. They are spoiled to the nines, but it will be so good for them to have cousins!
I know so many people that are pregnant or just had a baby. It's crazy! I definitely would love to have another little baby around, but then I start to think about my awful labors and it goes away real quick! I think I'm just going to leave the baby making to everyone else. I will definitely have a lot of babies around in the near future to love.
I think there is only one more bit of 'news' left. I got a new calling in church last week. One that I am feeling very inadequate for......Relief Society teacher. I have never taught a single thing in church ever. Nothing. I also tend to have panic attacks and hyperventilate in certain situations, so hopefully teaching Relief Society is not one of them. I definitely have mixed emotions about it. I am excited.....to learn and grow, but at the price of failing miserably? Not so excited about that. No, I don't think I will fail miserably, but it's there lurking in the back of my head. I'll let you know how that goes. I teach this Sunday. Maybe I should be preparing my lesson instead of blogging.....hmmmmmm.
Well, that's our life for this year so far in a nutshell!