Thank You Honey

They're beautiful.
I love you.

Happy Father's Day!

Here are some of the things that makes my Dad, the great father that he is...~He is always just a phone call away when you need someone to talk to.
~He cracks us up!
~He has a great sense of humor.
~He loves his children with all of his heart.
~He is always there for you, as a friend, a support, a father, a mentor....
~He believes in you. As a kid, I would tell him my aspirations as crazy and far fetched as they may have been, and he would always say "OK, you can do it."
~He is understanding, sensitive, and kind.
~He keeps his promises. Growing up, I knew if my dad promised something, he would do everything he could to keep it. I knew I could put all my trust in my dad.
~He puts his whole heart and mind into what he is doing.
~He is a devout husband and father.
~I'm MOST happy when I'm around him.
~He has a strong testimony, and lives by it everyday.I'm so grateful to have you as my father...I couldn't have asked for more. Thank you for being who you are, and for all that you do for your children. We LOVE you!
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!

Some of the things that makes my Father-in Law the great father that he is...~He has a big heart.
~He is always eager to help others.
~He loves his children dearly.
~He has a strong testimony.
~Makes everyone around him laugh.
~He is always cheerful.
~He is the perfect handy man...he can seriously fix anything!
~He's a devout father.
~He has a soft spirit.
~He's proud of all of his children.

You're amazing, and we are lucky to have you as a father!
We LOVE you!
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY...

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Happy Fathers Day to the rest of the father's that we know and love!
We hope it is great, and filled with lots of LOVE!!

He's Good At What He Does.

This week, Joe is on-call. Let me take a second to explain what that is. He is on-call every 5 weeks, from 4pm-8am, and during this time he is at home (he still has to go to work at 9am, but he gets home early at 3:30). When ever there is a technical problem at one of the hospitals, they page Joe, and are relying on him to fix it.
It has it's pros and cons. The pro, is that he gets to work from home some of the time, and I love having him here! He also gets to come home early, to be home for the on-call. The con, is that when it's a busy on-call, he is very busy working from home. Since it's from 4pm-8am, it means he can get a page in the middle of the night...which he does! The pro to that is, if it was busy during the night, he's allowed to sleep in to catch up on his sleep, and then work from home for the remainder of the day. That is what Joe is doing today, because it was busy last night.
Last night, I was laying in bed, half asleep, in total amazement at my husband! I realized how good he is at what he does. He goes from being dead asleep, to the jumping out of bed to answer the phone, and immediately start solving a nurses problem based on some little clue she gave him as to what is going on with her computer! I couldn't even tell you what street I live on, if you woke me up in the middle of the night, let alone fix your computer! One of the things that really blows me away, is how he can know exactly what to do, with just a little piece of information. One time when he was 0n-call, a doctor paged him in the middle of the night. Joe got up to call the doctor, still half asleep. I heard the doctor say, in a almost panicked way, "I'm not getting vital signs!" I immediately panicked! He's half asleep! He can't fix this....and it's kinda serious! Joe thought for a second, and then fixed the problem!
Joe is truly amazing at what he does!

I'm very grateful for the job that my husband has, and for the talent he has to do it well.
I'm so very grateful to Heavenly Father for blessing Joe with the talents he has to be successful in his career. Because of those blessings, we were able to buy a home, have a car to drive us around, provide us with all the things we need, and gives me the health coverage that I need. Joe really takes care of me, and Heavenly Father takes care of us.
I'm so grateful to them both!

Thank you honey for all that you do to provide for us...and thank you for all that you do for me! I know one of the reasons you work so hard at your job, is because you care about me, and you want to take care of me...thank you!
You have been through everything with me, and you have always been right by my side. I could never thank you enough. I don't know where I'd be without you.
You are everything to me!
I LOVE you!!! (above a lot ;)

Thank You Mom!!

Joe's Mom always sends us boxes filled with lots of goodies, for pretty much every holiday! She is so sweet! we look forward to it every time!She always send us things we cant get here in Colorado...
Like Moxie, Joe's favorite soda.Her gifts are always unique (things you can't always find at your regular store), and are always very meaningful!

Here's just a few of the unique gifts she got us for Easter:
Peeps stuffed animalsA Knights castle alarm clock (Before Joe left for BYU, he gave a talk about putting on the armor of God, and used a Knight as an example. Joe's Mom came to church to hear his talk, and since then Knights are a special thing between them.)

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A Knights tea potA Chinese wishing treeMom got me 2 earring and necklace sets.
This is my favorite piece.She sent us a lot of really great gifts!
The after math
Thank you Mom for all your Easter gifts!
We love each and every one!

She Taught Me Well...

She taught me how to scrapbook.
She taught me how to blog.
And she taught me how to make these totally delicious cookies!
Like seriously yummy to my tummy (and Joe's, he LOVED them!)
She's a good Sister in-Law.
Thank you Jen!

This Past week...

A lot of little things have been going on, but I haven't gotten around to blogging about it. I thought I would just wrap it all up into one big post :0)

Thursday:
Last Thursday I was at the end of my rope with boredom! I had been recovering from my knee surgery, and my days consisted of laying on the couch all day and watching T.V. I tried to do other things like reading a book, a magazine, or doing something crafty, but I was so dizzy from the medicine, that watching T.V. was my only option.
Joe called me a little before he was on his way home from work, and told me to get ready. I was so happy, because I knew that meant I was finally getting out of the house! When he got home he told me that he heard on the radio that a furniture store in Denver was having a sale, and that he went onto their web-site, and found a chair that he thought I would love (I'm currently searching for the perfect chair for my formal living room). I got in the car (with a big smile on my face:), and we drove into the city. He pulled into a parking lot in the middle of Denver and parked the car. He told me to open the glove box and pointed to a card for me to pull out, explaining that it was a picture of the chair. I pulled it out, and saw it was hockey tickets!! It actually took me a second to realize what they were, because I was just trying to find a picture of the chair :)It could not have come any sooner! I was so excited to just be out of the house, and I was totally thrilled that Joe had surprised me by taking me to a hockey game! I say It all the time...But
I LOVE HIM!!!
The tickets were for the 10th row, which was pretty up close and personal. Although the actual seats were horrible! I have no idea where they expect you to put your legs! It was hard for me to sit in them, because I couldn't really bend my knees that well. I would have just dealt with it the whole time, but that wasn't OK for Joe. He wanted me to be comfortable, and to have a good time (have I mentioned that I love him?), so he found someone who worked at the stadium, explained my situation, and they allowed us to move to the handicap row.
The seats were still very good, but the best part was I could put my legs up on the rail, keeping them straight and elevated.We had lots of fun eating hot dogs, cotton candy, watching the game, and spending time together. With every minute that went by, I felt like I was getting more and more of my sanity back! It was a very fun night!

Saturday:
We did a little shopping, and most importantly, we got our house back in order! Joe had done pretty well staying on top of things while I was in bed, but still, the house was in need of some cleaning. The house was slowly making me go crazy as well, so it was very nice to get everything back in it's place. This weekend is our official Spring Cleaning, and I'm so excited!

Monday:
That was the day of my follow up doctors appointment with Dr. Louks. He took my stitches out, and showed my the pictures he took of my knees. I saw my torn meniscus, which was pretty interesting. On one of my knees, the meniscus was actually folded over itself! As for the arthritis, it looked pretty bad. on various parts of my knee, the cartilage creators out, and you can see the bone. On those spots it is bone on bone when I walk...no wonder why I don't like walking :)
I didn't really ask a lot of questions, which I'm kicking my self over now. I just didn't really want to hear the answers. As he was leaving he said that he wanted to see me in 5 weeks, and we will go over my options then. I guess there's not really a lot for me to ask. I need knee replacements now, but I'm too young, so I need to stick it out as long as I possibly can. My doctor thinks that will be in 2 years, but I'm shooting for 5. They last 10 to 20 years, and the second ones don't last as long as the first. That's about it. It's pretty much just a wait and see kinda situation.

Here is what a knee replacement looks like:(photo courtesy of flickr)

Wednesday:
I had my Remicade infusion, which meant that I had to sit in my Doctor's office for 2 hours hooked up to an IV, being pumped full of medicine (I do this every 8 weeks). They upped my dosage from 300 to 500, to see if that would help at all. So far I haven't seen a difference, but I'm still waiting.
After my infusion I went to Ben and Idealia's to drop off the package Darin and Jessica had sent (thank you again!)After that I left to go pick Joe up from work, and we headed home to pick kisses up for her Doctor appointment. They removed her stitches, and the best part was, they removed her satellite!! It was a beautiful moment!We hated that thing...probably not as much as kisses hated it, but we were a close second. She was soooo happy when it came off!

Thursday:
Today we have a winter storm coming through. We are expected to get 8 to 15 inches of snow. Joe is working from home and we are having a nice and quiet snow day together :)That was a long post...and a long week. A fun, busy week!

Thank You!

A special thank you to Darin and Jessica for being so kind to send out some of Audrey's clothes and toys for Kismet...

...She loved it all!!

A BIG thank you from Ben, Idealia, and little Miss Kismet!

I know that a lot of other family members have also helped out. Not only do Ben and Idealia appreciate it, but Joe and I do as well...Thank you!