Things I LOVE

As part of November I always have an extra sense of gratitude. As for this blog I am dedicating it to the things I am grateful for or rather 'the things I LOVE.'

1. I love my calling in the LDS church. Right now I am the stake physical fitness/sports director, let me tell you how much I love this calling! What a blast it is to actually have a calling where I can go to nearly everything in basketball shorts and a T-shirt. That is what I am talking about! There is no other calling like it. I also love my assistant, Linda, she is completely amazing!! She is so dedicated and willing to do anything needed to have the women's sports succeed. She is so fun and always makes me laugh, Love her to death!

2. I love October (the month). This is the perfect month! The weather is perfect, the leaves are so beautiful. I love going for a run with my kids and smelling the fresh autumn air and hearing the leaves crunch under my feet. Halloween is such a joy. This year Ry picked his costume. He chose a green ghost, and yes, it HAD to be green. Easy enough for me, we got a green sheet, green hair spray paint, and green face paint. Abby was cheer bear, I know this isn't a big change from her daily personality, but hey......she was the cutest cheer bear ever! She truly is so happy and smiley, even on my bad days she can put a smile on my face. Ry LOVED trick or treating. He would run door to door and we finally got him to say trick-or-treat, by the end of the night my boy was a pro.

3. I love my home. I have been doing a little updating to my outside and I am pleased with the results. My sister and I have painted the railing and mailbox black and we bought a new front door, I will be painting that and the garage door a dark rustic red. I also want to put up a big Texas star! I haven't told Mark about the star yet, but I'm sure he won't mind =).

4. I love my family. I am so grateful to have them, all of them (extended included). They help me so much, I wouldn't be able to get through this life without them. Each of them teach me so much.

5. I love the Temple. There is a sense of peace and comfort that a person receives when in the temple that can't be relieved elsewhere. There have been many times in my life where I have entered the temple feeling beat up from the world, but hours later I leave feeling uplifted, energized and strengthened. I am truly grateful for this gift of knowledge and strength in my life.

6. I love my camera. It is nothing fancy, it doesn't have a lot of options, BUT what it does is priceless. It captures moments that I would not otherwise be able to capture. This morning is a perfect example. I was get ready for church and I went into the bathroom and I found Abby doing this.........................
Yes, you are seeing right, she is straightening her hair! I didn't prompt her or show her how. She even got it out of the cabinet herself. She obviously has seen me straighten my hair and she decided she needed a little straightening herself (hopefully she doesn't get my frizzy hair, if she does.....poor thing). SO CUTE. This made my day.

Earlier this week I was in one of those woe-is-me ruts, where all I do is dwell on how 'hard' my life is and how hard my trials are to bear. Then I had this sense (the Holy Ghost) that came over me and told me "Jennica, look at ALL I have given you." To say the least I was humbled. I HAVE been blessed with SO much. I just wasn't looking at it. I was focusing so much on the raindrops I missed the beautiful rainbow in front of me.

The Results

This past week was Abby's sleep Dr. appointment, I was previously mailed the results to the sleep study, and was therefore prepared for the bad news. Basically the run down of the appointment was there was some improvement with her desaturation levels, but no significant change. Due to these results the Dr. feels it necessary to take out her adenoids, but not her tonsils (unless the ENT feels it necessary). If she were to get her tonsils out she would have to spend days in the hospital for recovery and there is a lot more bleeding and swelling, with the issues that she already has with apnea the LAST thing we need is any kind of swelling in her throat. I have made an appointment to see the ENT at primarys, but unfortunately it's another month of waiting before we can see him.

One part of the study that became worse was her periodic breathing (periods of not breathing), this increased from 1% (first sleep study) to 5% (most recent sleep study) of the night is spent in periodic breathing. This is not good. She isn't sure why it is increasing, but one reason could be that she might have chiari malformation of the brain. To diagnose this requires an MRI (which requires more sedation). The cure for chiari is brain surgery. HUMM............YEP I'M STRESSED OUT!! I'm tired to say the least.

Although this has been a hard week for me I am grateful for good Doctors. Abby has such a good sleep Dr. She has been wonderful to us. Another thing I am grateful for is the gospel of Christ. There have been many times this week that I have felt the weight of the world on my back, but I have always had someone to turn to and that is the Lord, he has sent peace when peace has been sought. I know he knows the pain and worry we feel. I know he is truly in control of this situation and I just need more faith in Him and His plan for our family. I'm not sure what I would do without Him.

I am also very grateful for exercise! That's right you heard me. I LOVE to workout, and the more stressed I feel the harder and longer I workout. I have always loved exercising, but being a stay at home mom I can't make it to the gym very often...........OK, I never make it to the gym anymore. I have made my living room my gym. We have a treadmill, hand weights, and biggest loser/P90X DVDs (absolutely love them). My day is filled with so much less stress when I get a good hard workout in.

Family Temple Trip

We took Ry down to see the SLC temple. He loves temples and is always excited when we pass by one. He has been looking forward to this trip all week. We started the trip by stopping in at Bucca Di Beppos (Italian food). They are one of two favorite Italian restaruants Mark has. He is a picky Italian eater, so to be on his list is a tough task to accomplish. In my opinion they are super delish.

After dinner we walked the grounds of the temple. Ry was very happy. He is excited for the day he can enter the temple. The spirit is so strong on the temple grounds; especially for young children, I know they feel of Heavenly Fathers love. He knows the temple is Jesus's home and that it is a happy place. As we walked up to the temple Ry asked 'Is Jesus looking out the windows?' to that we answered Yes, in a way he is always watching over us. We visited the visitors centers and he loved seeing the 'big' Jesus. When we walked into the room he just looked up in awe, as did I. I love temple square, it is a slice of heaven on earth.

Being on the grounds of temple square with my family reminds me of why we are here and what is really important, that being family and the gospel of Jesus Christ. With the husstle and bussle of life, sometimes the focus of eternity is masked by 'noise'. I love getting away from the stress of life. It was such a fun night! I love family activities.

Abby and I had a girls night out last night.............not so fun, but yet still memorable. Here is a picture of what we did.

Yup, as you can see we went out on the town, dolled up and all =) Abby had her third and hopefully final sleep study. To say the least, they really wire her up. She wasn't very happy about her makeover. The techs and I joked we were going to send her up to space, she honestly looked like she was ready to go up there. I was up until almost 1 am trying to get her to sleep. I finally accomplished the task, after that she slept really good (only waking up at 3 am for a quick feed). They woke us at 6 am. I am very confident that these result will be accurate to her normal sleeping state. I really hope this is our last sleep study. I don't like them very much, and neither does Abby! But she is a good trooper, that girl has a heart of gold.