cholecystectomy (pronounced co-lee-sist-eck-toe-mee)

Well after 4 weeks of pain, 2 trips to the ER, tubes down my throat, iv's in my arms, several tests and not enough medication to take away symptoms, I underwent surgery on Monday, January 5th, to remove a small pear-shaped organ that stores and concentrates bile called the Gall Bladder. The gall bladder is connected to the liver by the hepatic duct. It is approximately 3 to 4 inches long and about 1 inch wide. The function of the gall bladder is to store bile and concentrate. Bile is a digestive liquid continually secreted by the liver. The bile emulsifies fats and neutralizes acids in partly digested food. A muscular valve in the common bile duct opens, and the bile flows from the gallbladder into the cystic duct, along the common bile duct, and into the duodenum (part of the small intestine).

Ok so now that you know it's purpose and where it is-- I no longer have mine. I have never really gone through surgery (unless you count a c-section) so I was a little nervous. One of the repercussions from the surgery besides pain from the incisions is the gas bubbles. When they do the surgery, they fill your abdomen full of gasses so that they can complete the surgery. They try to get most of it out but sometimes some of it HIDES! AAARRRGGGHHH! That gas is a bugger too. So with the support of my husband, my family, and some great friends who have really helped out, I am slowly recooping. It surprises me how much you use your abdomen for everything. I want to tell those who have called to check on me, those who have brought me treats, taken care of my kids, fixed dinner for my family and have just cared about my well being, Thank you for everything. I appreciate it more than you will ever know.

New Years 2009

This new years was a little low key. Usually I like to get out and enjoy the company of a bunch of friends.Well this year was a little different. I had not been feeling well for a couple of weeks and really wanted to ust stay home. Scott and Lisa came over to our house to help ring in the new year and played some cards with us. Leslie also came by to say Hi and we taught her how to play poker.

After a few rounds of poker, and a couple rounds of American Idol, we rang in the New Year while watching the ball drop with Dick Clark and enjoying a glass of champagne.

The kids celebrated in their own way at Nana's house and I did get a call at midnight from my mom letting me know that the kids were all asleep. Syd did wake up for a second to tell me "Happy New Years".

The rest of the night we sat and played cards until we were all so tired.

I have sat and thought of all of the resolutions I have for 2009 and also reflected on everything that happened in 2008. I have learned so many things from so many people and I want to take all that I have learned and apply it to my everyday life.

"my chikas!"
Scottie and Lisa

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A New Family Tradition....

The day after Christmas, my family came over and we had "Chinese Night" we made homemade egg rolls, fried rice and sweet and sour. My cousin Hayden and her husband Brent came up from New Mexico with their baby boy Braxton to spend the holidays with the fam so we got to hang out with them. Also Kelly, Boden and Cason came over along with Calvin, Andrea, Nene, Weston, Scott, Lisa and their girls. After we ate dinner, we chowed down on an assortment of yummies dipped in chocolate using my new chocolate fountain that I got for Christmas. Then it was time to play!
Some of us played "Catch Phrase" with the "Catch Phrase Natzi (Calvin)" and some of us grooved down to a little American Idol on the Wii. Not to toot my own horn, but I am the current reigning American Idol and I totally rock!! TOOT TOOT!!

Christmas!

Christmas morning came with much anticipation. I was expecting to get woke up a bit earlier, but I think that nerves made the kids get to bed a bit late. I wasn't complaining though. 8:30 am is plenty early for me. We were very excited about this Christmas morning because Tukar was finally starting to grasp what Christmas was. He saw all of the presents and the look on his face was priceless. He was so excited. Then it all began--paper ripping, boxes being torn apart, presents everywhere!!

Then came to the exciting part of the morning and we had a little something up our sleeves that was kinda hard to keep a secret. Well it started out telling my mom that we were going to take the girls to Hawaii. Well secretly we were planning something else...... After all of the presents were open, there was still a gift hiding behind the tree. Here's how the rest of it went.....

The rest if the day was spent with family. We went back over to Mom and Dad Hollands and had lunch and we all got to talk to the one person in our family that was not there... Elder Travis Big Dog Holland! He is serving his mission in Missouri and this will be the last Christmas he has to spend away from us. He is over his hump day. We did however get to spent time with his "going to be better half" Megan. She is such a QT! I cannot wait til "the" day! We played games including pool and 5 Crowns (a family fave of the Hollands)

Then it was off to my moms house to see my papa and give him his presents. There is another tradition there also. Ever since I was a little girl, I have gotten my Papa both "Lectric Shave" and "Stetson" for every Christmas. So to go along with the norm... we got him some unusual gifts as well. At Cabelas, they had a summer sausage assortment made up of some weird things such as wild boar, alligator, and jackalope (seriously it was rabbit and antelope together). We also got him some canned rattlesnake, alligator, buffalo, and venison. He has always liked trying new and weird foods so what weirder than those.

getting updated

Getting ready for the Holidays........

Christmas sorta snuck up on us really quick this year. December was a crazy month. Between parties, last minute shopping and illness (more to come about that) the month was full.

One of the thing that we did was go over to Scott and Lisa's house and made Christmas candy. Yummy chocolate suckers that the girls got to make themselves. Thanks Lisa. This will have to be a new tradition for us. It was a lot of fun.

Later we exchanges Christmas presents between the our families.

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Sledding.....with the sled

What a better way to take advantage of the snow that we have gotten than to go sledding!! We took off up to the fields by our house for a good time of sledding with the snow mobile. We found an open field and tied the sleds up behind the sled and took off! WHOHOOO!
The girls had such a blast and I decided that I needed to take advantage of the situation too! So Lisa and I jumped on the sled and Scottie took off! After a fun trip around the field, we hit a bump and BOOM! I fell off the back. So I decided that I better make a snow angel while I was laying there!

I cannot wait to go again!

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Christmas Eve with Family......
Christmas Eve has always been a time to spend with family. This year we went to Mom and dad Hollands for dinner, games, and a Christmas program with the entire family. It was nice to spend time with family. Growing up an only child had it's benefits and it's downfalls. One of the things I love about marrying into a large family is the times that we can all get together and enjoy each others company. I love seeing my kids playing with their cousins and spending time with my brother and sister in laws getting to know them. We had a yummy dinner including my mother in laws famous Clam Chowder. The we all sat down and played "Christmas Jeopardy" Ok so here is a question for all of you out there ( I would really like some input back on this one too please)

"How many reindeer are there?"

This was a touchy subject that was discussed and could have been the tie breaker in the game! I have my theories and I would like to know what everyone else's input is.

After we were done, it was time to head home and get ready for Santa to come.
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Getting ready for Santa. with traditions.......

Traditions have always been a part of our family. I have loved passing on traditions from my childhood to my children, and also making traditions of our own. One of the traditions I have passed onto my children is feeding Santa's reindeer on Christmas eve. Every year that is one of the highlights that my kids look forward to on Christmas eve. You take a little oats and mix it with some glitter (to reflect from the moonlight to attract the reindeer). Santa seems to get all of the treats and my kids love knowing that the reindeer get treats too. After all, they are the ones that have to pull the sleigh and it helps them keep up their strength.

Another tradition we have in our family is getting pj's on Christmas eve. You have to wake up in new Jammie's on Christmas morning to open your presents. We always get comfy pants that we can wear all year long.

And of course, there is always the tradition of leaving cookies for Santa. We know he loves chocolate so we left some extra chocolate treats for him too.

Helping Daddy!

Jon got a new snow plow for his 4 wheeler and has been so excited for the day to use it. Well today was that day! He came into our room this morning after getting ready to leave for work and was like a little kid! "There is SNOW on the ground, I am gonna use my new toy!!" So he bundled up and went to play. He asked Tukar if he wanted to help, so we got him all bundled up and he set outside to play with Daddy!
They had a blast! Jon said it takes some getting used to but he loves his new toy. I think the neighbors were kinda happy he likes it too. Saved them from shoveling!

A little disturbing

Ok so first of all, no offence to those parents who let their kids watch this show. I am sure it has its positives, although this is not one of them (at least to me.)
It was one of those days when I just turned on some tunes to occupy Tukar for a little bit while I got some cleaning done. This is pretty standard around our house (I know-- bad mom) So there I was, busy busy, when all of a sudden I stopped and listened to what was playing on the tv. It was the show called "Yo Gabba Gabba". Well the following stopped me in my tracks and really made me think about WHAT my kids are watching on tv.
Now I am not sure what the message was here but it doesn't seem like one that would be played on an antidrug commercial.

Something else that I noticed (and in one of my favorite movies) was this....

Now I don't know about your house, but that word is NOT ALLOWED in ours. So when Tukar started saying that to everyone, I got onto my girls accusing them of having said this ugly word. They swore to me it wasn't them, well now I guess it wasn't. It was this innocent Disney film. Don't get me wrong, we still watch this show ALL the time, we just skip through this part when Tukar is around.
I know that I cannot sheild my kids against everything, and we are pretty open with our kids, but there is an age when influence can be a bad thing.
I would like to hear your input on this sunject and if you have seen or heard anything....

Fun night with Friends

We had such a fun night on Saturday. Our friends, Scott and Lisa invited us to go to the Grizzley game with them. Scott got suite tickets from his work. We said yes of course and when Jon got off work, we headed up to the E Center. It was so fun. The suite provided dinner (Fajitas, chips and Salsa, Salad, and Apple cobbler for dessert) We only saw a couple of fights (isn't that the whole reason to go to a hockey game???)

Things have been kind of crazy at our house including trips to the er, potty training, getting ready for Christmas, and trying to keep the house in order so it was nice to get out for a while and enjoy the time with adults.

The Grizz won 5-3. It was an exciting game. They Grizz were down by 2 until the 3rd period then they made thier come back.It is so loud everytime they score. They did a promotional thing last night where everytime they score, the audience would throw stuffed animals out onto the ice and then they donated all of the animals to to police. They collected over 900 animals.

Btw--- I am so making these for everyone for christmas! I absolutely loved this hat!!

Here comes Santa Claus!

WoooooWoooo was the sounds we heard and we knew that it was that time when Jon got to drive Santa Claus around the city on the firetruck and throw candy out to all the kids. Well what a better way for Santa to travel, in the SNOW!! It really feels like Christmas now. Although I am not fond of the snow, I was starting to worry if we would have white Christmas this year.

Tukar was so excited that he got all dressed up in his warm clothes and stood on the porch waiting for Santa to come on the woowoo (thats firetruck in Tukarnese if you didn't know) What a memory he will have of his daddy driving that big red truck toting that big red man! They got a call for a wreck, so Santa had to jump in the ambulance for a little bit. They all met up at our house and Ho Ho jumped back on the firetruck. What a trooper that dear sweet Santa to ride on top of the firetruck in the freezing snow! We are glad he did though. This is when it is a lot of fun with kids because he is starting to understand WHO Santa is and what he does. It is just trying to get him to understnad that he has to be good is the hard part.

I can't wait for Christmas morning to see his face. (and the girls. We have something special planned for them this year!!! I'll keep you updated!)

Acadian Party

Every year, Jon's company throws a party for the foreman's and the owners. It has become sort of a tradition now. This year we went to Scott and Kaylene's house. Everyone brought their favorite appetizers. There was some yummy food there. We all have our traditional foods that we have to bring (Kaylenes bacon covered water chestnuts, Janis' yummy brownies and her won tons, and I have to bring hot wings) For the last couple of years, we have also made a tradition of the games we play. Bunco has become a favorite of the guys (especially Jon) We like to throw a few curves in there though. We have the normal "most bunco's" , "high score", "low score" and "most zeros" for the whole game, but we also do prizes every round like who had the low score on that table (then it goes to the person on their right) we had secret number, secret chair, and a couple more.
Then we play our "WHITE ELEPHANT" game. This one has become a favorite of mine. People come up with the most creative prizes. Layne (Brians wife) made a "Bust duster" (it was a bra with feathers glues onto it). Then there was Scotts gym bag that consisted of tighty shorts, sweat bands and leg warmers. We had a couple of lava lamps, a bowling ball with a bag, a box of self help tapes (never opened) and some naught golf tees with 2 packages of golf balls. All in all it was a fun night and I can't wait to see what everyone come up with for next year. Any ideas????

New Do's at our house!

So I guess it is that time of year when it is time to shed the lockes! Well Tukar was first. He has not had a hair cut since his dad decided that shaving his head would be a good idea. I guess it was for the summer, but now that it is cold, he needed hair. But he also needed hair with a style. We had tried to cut his hair before (hence the reason Jon decided to shave it off) and I knew I didn't want to attempt it again. So on my way to my daily jaunt to Wally World, I saw a new business called "Cookie Cutters". PERFECT! It is a salon you could say that is targeted to kids. We went in and they were so nice. Tukar got to pick out a movie and a place to sit. They had different cars, motorcycles, and of course an airplane (this is what Tukar picked) So he climbed inside and watched Nemo. The girl cutting his hair was absolutely AMAZING! She was quick, patient, and knew what to do to get Tukar to sit still ( and when he wasn't, she still knew how to cut his hair while he was moving)

I totally recommend this place for those little ones to get their hair cut. After they were done, they gave him a treat and a balloon! So here is some before and after pics of Tukar.