Labor Day weekend 2016

Labor day weekend in September 2016 was an adventure. Jason was diagnosed with sleep apnea and was having surgery to down his uvulo, removed tonsils and reduced the size of his tongue base. His surgery was done up in Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania hospital.  Jason's surgery was in the morning of September 1st.  He had to spend a few days in the hospital depending on his pain level.  It was no fun watching him go through this surgery. Cristina was an emotional wreck. I am used to being the one getting surgery.

They had Jason go back and change and I only got to be with him for a few minutes. I cried leaving him and just prayed he would be fine and the surgery would go well.  The hospital is huge and has all these wings to get lost in.  They guided me to a waiting room and I went to get lunch in the cafeteria. Jason's surgery was pretty fast--the Dr came and got me and told me all went well and he would be very sore but she felt it was successful.  I was able to go see him in recovery a half hour later and he looked so pitiful. He was sleepy but recognized me. The nurses were so nice and helpful.  Jason got moved up to a room since he had stay for the weekend.  I stayed with him till 9pm that night and I drove to a hotel by the airport. I was so exhausted but they had an awesome gym so I worked out night one. 

I ate breakfast at the hospital and Jason attempted to eat a little bit. He was on a pain pump that he pushed a button when he was hurting and also they gave him liquid medicine for the first part of the surgery.  The 2nd day they gave him a pill to swallow and took him off the pain pump. It was hard to see him in pain.  He would dose off on me but it was fine. I had things to do and a TV in the room to watch.  Jason was in a shared room but had the first bed. The guy next in the room with him had a complicated surgery too, his wife was so nice. Every time Jason got up he had to take his pain pump with him, we walked the halls a few times and that was fun. Jason's Dad was in philly visiting so they came to see us and took me to Bobby's burger place.  There food is so delicious.

I went to the hotel because BYU was playing football.  I started watching it in the hotel lobby because the wifi was free there.  It was an interesting experience...Jason eventually told me to go buy the wifi so I could watch the game and fall asleep. The BYU game went to 1am that day.  I went to bed but woke up early because Jason texted me and said he was probably being release that morning.  I checked out of the hotel by the airport because we had another hotel in New Jersey set up which is for an extended stay so Jason could heal. The doctor wanted us to stay near by in case there were issues since we were 4 hours away from home.

Jason was released that afternoon and we picked up pain medicine and headed to the hotel. Luckily they had our room set up early. We got there and I went grocery shopping and got Jason some soft food to eat for lunch.  He slept alot and I relaxed and helped him with things.  The hotel had breakfast so he was able to eat a few things. We had a follow up with the doctor before we left and she said all looked good. We headed home a week later.  Thank goodness the surgery has been successful.

Dallas Trip and Louisiana Wedding

AT&T Stadium (on the field)

Dallas Cowboys cheerleader locker room

Dallas Cowboy locker room

Rudy's-the best BBQ ever

Sign in the airport

Us in the party bus

The bride and groom

Louisiana sign at a rest stop

Dallas Police car

Reception tables

Cathedral

At the end of April we flew to Dallas Texas for a wedding that was happening in Shreveport, Louisiana.  The Dallas Lovefield airport was better to fly into. While in Dallas Texas we saw the Dallas LDS Temple, visited Rudy's BBQ which was delicious and saw and toured AT&T stadium.  We were able to tour and walk on the field which was neat. That stadium is really big. We did a self guided tour which allowed us to walk into the locker room and press room.  Jason found a groupon for a tour of Dallas via bus. So we went to our pick up spot and saw the Kennedy memorial. Our bus was running late and so we melted in the hot sun.

 The bus picked us up and we saw the place were President Kennedy was shot. Part of the tour was at a home where he lived, as we were getting ready to leave the bus would not start.  So,we had to wait for another bus to come get us. As we were waiting the Dallas police pulled up and asked us if we were alright. They were so kind and nice.  While on this tour we meet this two sweet ladies who were here for a Girls trip and were fun to talk to.  We waited for 20 minutes and a party bus pulled up. The rest of our tour was on a party bus which was fun.

The next day we drove to Shreveport, Louisiana for the wedding ceremony and the reception for our dear friends from Jason's graduate program in Middle Tennessee. These two have been good friends. Thank you for inviting us Lauralee and Matt.  The wedding was gorgeous and the reception was amazing. There was amazing food- I got to try beef wellington, lobster mac and cheese and it was delicious. There was an open bar and we had Coke in wine glasses since they ran out of paper cups. It was a fun night full of dancing with glow in the dark tamborines, glasses and bracelets. We stayed in a hotel near by so we walked home once we got tired. We headed back to Dallas the next day and flew home but not after finding and In and out burger place. It is the closest one we have to us so we had to go. 

Jason's 30th Birthday -April 2016

Birthday sign

Birthday table with gifts

Funfetti Birthday caeke

Hibachi for dinner

For Jason's 30th Birthday in April we went to Hibachi .  It was so delicious. We had fun at our table. We also had funfetti birthday cake after. Jason's birthday always falls on General Conference weekend but we had fun. We went to a hockey game a few weeks prior to celebrate. And jeopardy was filming in Washington D.C so we got tickets for that. They filmed it in the DAR constitution hall. It was neat to be in that building and to see a few tapings of Jeopardy.  Security was intense and the lines were long but we had fun. The actors that they filmed that day were funny. 

Outside in line at the DAR Constitution Hall

Alex Trebek with contestants on the stage

ENT Doctor and Surgery

I kept getting sinus infections, one right after the other and it was no fun. I kept getting put on antibiotics week after week and was having side effects from them.  I finally made an appointment with an ENT doctor in March. He was very friendly and made me feel comfortable. He had me go get a CT scan see if I was a good candidate for a balloon in office procedure. He stated I had what you call acute sinusitis.

I was so nervous for the CT scan and it only took five or so minutes and it was nothing to be worried about. Sometimes I work things up in my head.  Sadly, I was not a great candidate for the balloon surgery so I had to go under anesthesia and have another surgery.  I was little nervous since it was sinus surgery but I knew it would help out. On June 15, 2016 I had surgery. I was a little nervous but knew the doctor was a good one. This time my surgery was at Fair Oaks Hospital. The nurses were all kind and took good care of me. The first few days of healing sucked because I couldn't breathe well because of all packing and things.  You weren't able to blow your nose but could use sprays and nose rinses. It was fun times.

The first follow up appointment was interesting because he used a mini vacuum to suck out all the dried out things in my nose. It tickled but I could finally breathe after that. It was amazing the difference of night and day. Luckily no sinus infections so far and I am doing better.  After surgery I wanted Chick Fila for lunch because I was starving. That was a bad idea, I needed to work up to that. The meds they had me on made me sick so we had to get anti nausea meds as well.  After day 2 I was able to hold food down and recover.

My hand wrapped up after being tested for allergies, the needle would not go into my vein in my arm for some reason so they pricked my vein in my hand. so painful

Puzzles I did while recovering.

Me in the car after surgery in the Chick Fila line, I think i scared people.

Snowmagedon 2016

I love snow but not sure if I love 30 inches of snow.  We were prepping for the chance of a lot of snow (getting extra food, water, milk, etc).  Being from Utah and getting snow I didn't worry to much but it was crazy.  The snow began and we hunkered down at home. Many people were told to stay home from work and tele work.  My daycare closed down because there was so much snow and our parking lot at work was not plowed yet.  We spent the day digging our cars out of all the snow.  It was so much snow the mounds we all made just kept getting higher and higher. 

Because the snow storm happened it was the week of when the Utah Jazz were set to play the Washington Wizards in D.C.  So they had to postpone the game due to all the snow and not many being able to attend.  The game was rescheduled for a few weeks later and we went. I wore my Utah jazz jersey, sadly the Jazz lost but it was alot of fun.  

Part of the cars uncovered

The view right out the front door

The storm was tracked by the bread o meter

Half the car uncovered,so much snow

This is how much snow was all over our cars

Wizards vs Jazz game

November and December 2015

We had a good Thanksgiving this year with Grandma Barber and a few uncles and aunts and Jason's dad and Laura.  We went black Friday shopping and had a good visit. We went hom

In and Out Burger's

The light show at Kearns, or the line to get in

Gabby, Colin, Mom and Rafa in the van

temple square

Salt Lake LDS Temple

Mountains from BYU

Me and Jason watching the BYU Football game

Marriott Center Jumbotron

e and worked for a few weeks and on December 18th we traveled to Utah for Christmas vacation. Jason and I landed in Denver and found out our plane was delayed by a little bit which worked out well.  We had time to eat lunch calmly but the airplane arrival boards were mixed up and they had our plane at another gate. Luckily we got it corrected.  We rented a car and to find out they gave us a car that actually turned out to be a small van. It was interesting.  

We got to Utah and went to In and Out burger with my mom and sister and my brother in law Colin. It was so good to see family again and eat a good burger.  Jason and I drove down to Provo Utah to go to a BYU basketball game. It was nice to be back in the Marriott center and see it again. The improvements were nice.  We got engaged there so it was nice to be back. Sadly mom was not feeling well and the four of us kids went to the Forgotten Carols which is a great musical at Christmas. It was nice to feel the Christmas spirit and be reminded of the Savior.  Sunday we went to church and had dinner with my sister at her house and visited Jason's aunt and uncle.  Monday we got our hair cut from our great stylist Krystal. The four of us kids went to the Utah Jazz game on Monday were we beat the Suns.  It was a fun game but cold. 

As a family we all crammed into our little van and got Chinese food and went to see the light show at Kearns Olympic Oval.  It was fun and neat to watch.  It was fun to have us all in the same car. Poor Gabby and Colin were stuffed in the back.  Christmas Eve we had a nice meal with our family friend Rafa and read the scripture story.  Christmas Day we woke up to 4 inches of snow and made the crazy drive to Payson where my sister lives. The roads were not cleaned off well so some people were struggling.  We brought our peach french toast casserole for Christmas morning and had ham, funeral potatoes, jello, rolls and aspargus for dinner. It was great. We had a fire going and enjoyed time together and enjoyed our presents to one another. We also went to see the new Star Wars movie which we all loved. The day after Christmas we went to Tucanos with the family and enjoyed all the great food.  We also visited with another uncle, saw Temple square, visited with my best friend Katie. We had a great time in Utah.  We had an early flight home but had no issues and got home safely.

It is always nice to be with family and friends. I enjoy going back to Utah and I must say I enjoyed seeing the  mountains again.

October 2015

I love the fall and all the beauty of the leaves and colors of the trees.  I spent a lot of October at home resting and recovering from surgery.  On October 19 I turned the big 30.  It was kinda surreal to know that I finally hit the 30's.  I don't pass as a 30 year old a lot. I get carded a few times for things and it makes me laugh. Luckily, I have a great husband and family that made it a great day. I was at home resting and my mom sent me my BYU jacket,gift cards, and a sweet card. My sister sent me a gift card and a funny card.  Jason took me to The Cheesecake Factory and I got my fish and chips and a  white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake. It was so delicious. I also got the Luke Bryan cd and flowers and  was still a little tired from surgery we came home and relaxed. It was a great day and I am going to do my best to enjoy being the 30. Hopefully this year will be a good year.

October 23rd and 24th---I had a good friend drop me off at metro to ride into Union station to catch the Amtrak train to Richmond, Virginia. I was going down there to meet my mother in law and go to Time out for Women. It is a women's conference and it is always so uplifting. On my metro ride some guy asked me to help him with his metro fare card. He was Hispanic so we talked and he had never been on metro before. So we were going to almost the same place so he stayed with me and it was a little awkward. He was nice and respectful though so all turned out well. My train was running late and Jason surprised me because he got out of his meeting early and beat me to Richmond. We went to time out for women and it was great. I always enjoy our time there.


October 26th---I returned to work today after 2 months of being at home. It was nice to see all my kids and co workers again. It was a little rough at first because I was still tired. It was nice to get to normal life again. My kids always make me laugh and are sweet.