RSL and Kade

 Kade had an opportunity to go on the field at the RSL game. 

It was a cold night. I was happy to stay home and rest and recover.

The cold didn't bother Kade. He had a great time with his teammates.

Lynnlee's 13th Birthday

Lynnlee is 13!!! She is a responsible and kind 13-year-old. She is a great friend to others, even those different than her. She is a super helper and second mom to her siblings. She loves to do arts, crafts, play soccer, bake, and play games. She is enjoying 7th grade. She is a straight A student and in the advanced classes. 

She had a fun birthday weekend. The timing of my surgery was tricky but she was great at helping prepare and decorate. We bought everything before so she and Marshall set everything up while I directed them from the couch.

Her actual birthday was Sunday but her party was Saturday. The YW leaders set up a birthday sign with balloons.

The party favors were Easter candy tubes.

Her friends met at our house and then Marshall took them to an escape room.

It was a science lab theme escape room. 

They came back to our house for ice cream cake and Lynnlee opened presents. I stayed in my room but watched on the Nest camera. 

Lynnlee designed her own birthday invitation. 

That night she went to a movie with Marshall and invited to Sienna to come along. The movie was called School of Magical Animals. 

On Sunday she got chocolate chip pancakes. Her birthday dinner was shrimp alfredo. Grandma Ruth and Papa Kelly came for dinner. 

Rose's Recovery

Thursday, March 16th was a day with a big surgery for me. I had a hysterectomy. It all started in the fall of 2021 when I was having cramping every day. I waited for a few months for it to go away but it didn't. I thought it was in my head but it wasn't. It was annoying to constantly feel that discomfort. Sometimes it would wake me up at night. I had an ultrasound to see what was causing it and the ultrasound showed varicose veins. I was diagnosed with pelvic congestion syndrome which is an umbrella diagnosis for pelvic pain with unknown cause. The treatment options were vein removal or hysterectomy. I didn't like those options so I decided I would just deal with the pain. It wasn't too bad for a few months but then it got uncomfortable through the summer. Then I decided it wasn't going away and I didn't want to live with the pain. I thought a lot about the treatment options. Vein removal isn't a guaranteed resolution. I knew a hysterectomy would be and since I didn't need my uterus it would be ok to take it out. 

My surgery wasn't until the afternoon. I was planning on same day but I got out of surgery so late in the day and my pain was out of control. I ended up staying the night so my pain could be managed by IV medication. It was a good choice. I was throwing up and miserable that night after surgery. My 10:00 at night I was feeling much better and my pain was tolerable. Marshall was with me until then and then he went home to be with the kids since we weren't planning on me staying the night. It all worked out though. I had a good night at the hospital and he got the kids off to school and came back the next day. 

I went home the next morning. The first few days were very painful and uncomfortable. I had ice packs on my incisions constantly. There was a lot of taking it easy. Which means lots of pictures snuggling with Chewie.

So I'm back blogging where I'm posting this with the date of March 17th but it's actually June 3. So I'm going to just add how the whole recovery went. The recovery was way longer than I had hoped. I thought because I was super active before, and eating healthy-ish, that I would prove everyone wrong and recover quickly. Turns out it was more like the exact opposite. Each check up I have not been healed. I took it so easy. So it was discouraging. I didn't feel like myself through 6 weeks so that helped me want to take it easy but it was also a bummer not feeling like myself. After 6 weeks I felt back to normal but I still wasn't released for full activity yet. Thankfully I could start swimming at 6 weeks. That helped a lot because I was really missing my running, biking, and swimming. Swimming helped me feel more active. By 8 weeks I had my final check up. I still wasn't completely healed but I got a go ahead from the doctor to run and bike so it was good and bad. 

Here's what I learned through it all. It's ok to not work out. Sleep needs more priority in my life. I can control my eating. I counted calories and ate less through the recovery so I wouldn't gain weight. I also learned that it's not fun doing nothing all day everyday. I couldn't wait to do chores and be productive. You can only do nothing for so long before it's not a good thing. 

Cousin Time

 It is so fun when Charlie's family is in town for their spring break! We had a cousin sleep over Sunday night. Thankfully there was no school for us on Monday so it worked perfectly for a sleep over. Ashlyn came with Marshall and I Monday afternoon to watch James's JV game. 

Tuesday night we had March birthdays at Chuck O Rama.

Wednesday Lynnlee and Kade got to go skiing with Charlie's family. 

It's fun having Grace living with my parents because she comes to all of the gatherings as well. 

Puerto Rico

 A few days after returning from Hawaii we left on another trip. This time to San Juan, Puerto Rico with Amarr. We stayed at Wyndham Grand Rio Mar. We took a red eye Tuesday night (March 7) which normally isn't my favorite but I got enough sleep and felt pretty good when we got there. It was worth it to have most the day Wednesday to enjoy the resort. We ate lunch on the beach then swam in the ocean. We enjoyed body boarding and boogie boarding. The water was warm and the waves were big but the under toe was weak. It was way more fun than Hawaii because we weren't afraid of drowning. 

View from our room: El Yunque Rainforest

View from lunch:

The resort had a boogie board we used everyday.

View at sunset.

View after dinner as we walked around the resort. It was a full moon.

Thursday:

I liked the schedule on this trip. Each morning I woke up early and ran on the treadmill. Then I worked and got my hours for Cotiviti while Marshall went to meetings. Then we ate lunch and went on an afternoon excursion. Thursday we went to the rainforest, "hiked" to a swimming area in the river. There was a platform to jump off and a rope swing. The river was cold but not too cold. Once you got in and it was easy to get used to it.

I would have liked to do something like this when we were in Hawaii. This is more my style of a fun activity. Even though Hawaii is a beautiful, amazing place. If I ever go back to Hawaii I would want to plan more active activities. So Puerto Rico was great and a nice balance of active activities, work, and taking it easy.

After swimming we went to Luquillo Beach and shopping area. We realized we each forgot our wallets. So we enjoyed window shopping and were able to get a few souvenirs with Apple Pay. Sadly we couldn't get much though. The shopping area also had lots of places to eat with Puerto Rican food. None of them took Apple Pay so it was a bummer! We walked along the beach after shopping. 

This is a picture of the shopping center. We came here a few years ago when we were in Puerto Rico for our cruise. It was fun to go back and I think it is definitely a must to go to if we ever go to Puerto Rico again.

That night we had a fancy dinner at the resort. The resort had a few restaurants and we chose one that had an opening at the time we wanted to eat. It was all paid for by Amarr so we enjoyed appetizers, a yummy main course and a fancy dessert. We were stuffed. Marshall had steak and I had salmon. Everything was so good. We also had lots of pina coladas along with our dinner. Mmmm! We were paired up with 4 other couples. We were able to make conversation to make it enjoyable. Being more introverted, it's always a win when group dinners go well.

Friday morning view:

We took an Uber back to the shopping area on Friday after work, meetings and lunch. We got the rest of the souvenirs, tried pina coladas in a pineapple, and ate some Puerto Rican food.

After souvenir shopping we went back to the beach for boogie boarding. They were the best waves and we couldn't get enough. We had some fun tandem boogie boarding. Since we had the one board we took turns. Then every once in awhile I would go with Marshall and jump on his back while we road the wave in.

That night we had dinner with the whole Amarr group. It was a beautiful night at the resort on the hotel lawn. This is what it looked like during the day.

We took pictures after around the hotel just for fun.

We flew home Saturday afternoon.