911...what's your emergency?

Ok. So here is the story of what happened this afternoon and how our bathroom looked as though it was a crime scene.


Let me give you a little history first. When I was pregnant with Zoee I got a varicose vein in my leg. It is on my left leg about 5 or 6 inches up from my ankle. It was bad all through my pregnancy with Zoee. It calmed down a lot after I had her and even though you could tell it was there it was not nasty and bulging out like it was when I was pregnant.


Once I got pregnant with Gus, it returned and was nasty and big and painful all during my pregnancy. My doctor never seemed too concerned about it because it did getter better when I was not pregnant so I guess he didn't really think it was that bad.


Well, this nasty vein comes and goes. If I am on my feet for a long time then it sticks out more. Like when we walked around Sea World all day...it stuck out more and kinda hurt. The last few days it has started to stick out a little bit and bug me.


Ok. so now for today. I had just said goodbye to Sarah and needed to go to the bathroom so I went to go. As soon as I sat down I felt my that my leg was wet. I looked down to see that my pant leg as totally soaked in blood. I lifted up my pant leg and it was then that the thing started to spray! Never in my life had I seen so much blood come out of one person! It was seriously shooting almost 3 feet out. It was unbelievable! I grabbed some TP and tried to hold it on there but the TP was soaked within seconds. I knew I needed help. Keep in mind I am still on the toilet with my pants down! I started to yell for Zoee or Nate but they were outside. I thought for sure I was going to bleed out and die right there on my bathroom floor!


Nate heard me yelling (because I was yelling really loud) and came running into the house. He came in and saw all the blood and wasn't even sure what to do. We talked for a sec about who to call or what to do and we decided to call 911. I probably wouldn't have called them but we could not get it to stop. The operator told Nate to get some dry towels and apply pressure to my leg. He ran and got me 3 dish towels and I began to hold it on my leg. oh, I finally finished my business on the toilet and let go of my leg long enough to pull up my pants. The 911 operator said she had some people on the way. I sat down on the floor and tried to hold the towels on my leg and try to stop the bleeding but it was not stopping. I would take the towel off and it would squirt straight up like a water fountain. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen.


The paramedics finally got there and I think they thought it was a little worse than what it was when they walked in because here I am sitting on the floor, blood all around me, the floor, the rug and the wall. They told me it really did look like a crime scene in there. I was totally embarrassed! The nice man sat with me and held a towel on my leg for a good 10 minutes or so until the bleeding stopped. They made sure I was feeling ok and was not about to pass out. They offered to take me to the hospital but I didn't feel that was necessary and neither did they since they were able to get it stopped.


So this is where I am at. I have a bad vein that obviously needs to be fixed. I am so afraid that it will happen again and I might be some place alone of some where I can't get help. The paramedics told me that I need to see the doctor and they will send me to a vein specialist and they can go inside and fix the vein. I am not sure how but I know I want to do it.


It was awful. It was messy and gross. Poor Zoee was so worried because she saw her momma on the floor with A LOT of blood and was not sure what was going on. She keeps asking my why my leg was squirting blood so far. I am SO glad Nate was home and that he was able to help. I don't know what I would have done had he not been here.


I talked to my mom and she told me that my grandma had the same problem and she remembered a time when one of my grandmas broke open. Maybe it's just in my genes. Not sure but I am sure I don't want it to happen again!!

Here is part of the floor where I was sitting. This was even after I had taken a rag and tried to clean it up.

3

the number of piles of puppy poo i found in our bedroom after coming home from work today.
damn dog.

I think

time goes faster and faster as you get older. Really. I can't believe its been a whole months since I posted that last long-overdue update, and here we are a month later; time for another update again.

Really, I can't think of a lot except for things in this past week so I'm gonna rely on the picture we've got of the happenings. And it feels like we've had one hell of a week.

Actually, here are the recent things that I can think of right now; and they're in no order.

new puppy

We got a new puppy a week ago. We have yet to actually name him. He's an all black Pomeranian. We didn't really know we wanted a dog until Stac took Zoee to a dog store and totally fell in love with the Pomeranian... that just happened to be, get this, $800!! I couldn't believe a couple things about it: 1) that Stac actually wanted a puppy, let alone a little puppy. She's never been a fan of the small dogs; they're usually yappy. 2) that for a day or two, we actually considered how much we'd be willing to pay for something so tiny and cute. If we could get them to take $600, would we do $600?? So 3 or 4 days later when she took me back to see this wonderful black fur ball (that for $800 I was hoping it would poop pure gold), it'd been sold. which brings me to 3) Hindsight being what it is, who in their right mind would pay so much for something so tiny?!

So from there, the search was on to find and affordable Pomeranian, preferably an all black one (which I read online are kinda tough to come by.) Stac found a lady who breeds poms and after a couple emails, it was decided that we'd meet up with her and see what she had to offer. We met her and after a little running around we ended up coming home that afternoon with a brand new, super cute, tiny ball of black fur. I think somewhere under it all there's a puppy.

baby-sat Sarah's kids

Sarah and Tyler went to TN for a concert. So we watched Brock and Briggs for a couple days while they partied. It's tough to suddenly have double the kids than what you're normally used to. And add into that that they have their own schedules, eating habits (preferences), style of play, and personalities, it was harder than we bargained for, I think.

No pictures of that.

off probation

As of the 3rd, which is today, (even though I began and promised this post yesterday), I am through with my probation period. NLV has an 18 month probation period which I thought was really long when I began. But I can't believe I've been employed for a year and a half already! I still love what i do and the people I get to work with. It has been such a huge blessing that I got on with the city. And an added blessing that I have such a secure job in today's eco that pays as well as they do. Truly a blessing to our little family.

Marine graduation and sea world

Stac's brother graduated for Marine boot camp. So the Layton clan drove down, picked us up, and we all headed down to San Diego for a little Vegas escape. The graduation (in my opinion) was nice but really, kinda anticlimactic. It was really warm and much much more humid than I'm used to, so there was tons of sweat and impatience happening during the trip. Rod and Teresa bought us all tickets to Sea World and I have to admit that I wasn't super excited about going at first. But as soon as we got in and I saw how exciting it was for Gus and Zoee to see dolphins swim right past them, it really put everything into a new light for me. It was almost magical (sorry, this is really corny...) to see them so excited. It ended up being a pretty long day and both of the kids did GREAT considering how hot it was, how tired they were, and how much sitting and waiting some of the shows involved. They loved the whole day.

Great job Ky. Your whole family couldn't be more proud of you!!

mt. charleston/picnic

Last week Stac asked if there was anything going on after I got off work the next day. We didn't. So I said maybe we could go up to Mt. Charleston and have some lunch up there and let the kids play and climb and do kid stuff. My thinking was that it would be a nice escape from the triple digits and figured it'd be about 20 degrees cooler than in town. That night it got overcast in town with a chance of rain. By the time I got off and we left town, it was only 95. On the mountain, the car said it was 60! It was perfect! It wasn't cold and definitely wasn't even close to hot.

We went up to the top and started walking up the hiking trail but since we weren't planning on going for a hike, no one had good hiking shoes. So we just the Zoee and Gus take it all in. I think they both loved being up there and seeing how pretty it was. It was really exciting to me to think about taking them both back up there as they get older and more physically able to go and do. I have come to really enjoy camping and hiking as I've gotten older and I see it as such a treat to get out of Vegas and go somewhere so nice and quiet and pretty and exciting. And I want to be able to share that with the kids. I want them to have fun being in the middle of nowhere with nothing around but trees, rocks and dirt. I want them to be able to appreciate being in nature. I want them to see the benefits of getting away and being alone and learning, to an extent, how to take care of themselves when camping. I really feel like those things are important for kids to know. As much of a city boy as I am, I feel like I've been blessed to have had more nature experiences than a lot of people I grew up around. And I'm grateful for that.

Elder Mike came home

My brother came home from his mission. And that was really exciting. It was good to see him. I really can't help but remember what it was like when I came home from mine. Everything was just so surreal. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to act normal. I had nothing to talk about that didn't begin with"When I was with Elder..." or "When I was in (insert any area name) (insert any awesome family/weird family/memorable bishop you worked with/strange investigator)..." Coming home and back to reality was weird. Mike seems to have handled it pretty good.

Erin and Sarah put together a well attended dodge ball game the night he came home. I was skeptical but went anyway. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! I think everyone had a really good time. I don't have any pictures so anyone reading this is gonna have to find Erin and/or Sarah on facebook to see the pictures they posted on there. It was so much fun to have so much of our family there and then to throw balls at them. The days following was when we all realized the price we would pay for having such a good time. I was sore in muscles I'd forgotten I had. Just sitting and walking was painful.

Zoee has started preschool officially

A lady in our ward runs a preschool out of her house. We were able to get Zoee in at the very last minute and we're so glad we did. Zoee loves going, she loves her teacher, and it's nice to get her out of the house for a couple hours a couple days a week. I think she learns more than she realizes.

So I think that's it. I've got a couple more pictures I'll try to post later. But we're about to go do some DI shopping, lunch, and try to get Stac ready to go to the annual Swiss Days trip my dad and sisters go on.

New post coming.....

before the end of today. Promise.

-Nate

I miss the old days sometimes

this is nate.

K, so yesterday we were at the church waiting for our bishop interviews with the bishop to renew our temple recommends. While waiting in the hall, I heard my teaching companion (I teach the 9-10 year olds) in the clerk's office talking about somebody's records having not been forwarded to their new ward. Since I had some time as the membership clerk in the last ward, I was kinda proud of myself for knowing what needed to be done for it. Long story short, I heard him making a call about Jon and Jamie's new address. This is how this connects to me finally sitting down to blog today. My teaching companion is Bro. Chris Miller, who is married to Marinda Egbert, older sister to Jon Egbert (the Egbert clan which we were in the old Villa Bonita ward with for all of my growing up in Vegas), husband to Jamie Hammons, older sister of my great great friend Molly, married to my other great friend Elliott (I was their connection to meeting and ultimately ending up married thank-you-very-much)(and a thank you to Wet-N-Wild also), neither of which I've talked to in what feels like FOREVER since they moved to Florida :( Sooo, I broke into this conversation I was listening to and told Bro. Miller that I could probably track down said Jon and Jamie's address... I'd just call her sister (after all Molly has always been super organized, super on top of things and would probably have her sister's address within arm's reach of where ever in the world she may happen to be when I called her up. So I called her up.

Of course she happened to be going to bed (oh yeah, I forget that the land of Florida is 3 hours ahead) and get this... admitted that any time she needed an address, she'd just call up her good ol mom! I was amazed. For all the years I've known this amazing Molly, the secret is to just have a mom who's that much more amazing (oh, I miss molly's parents too, they're good people.)

So I could only chat with them for a couple minutes when it was my turn with the bishop and since th were going to bed, I'd call them later.

Afterward, it got me thinking. I really do miss Molly and Elliott. They are 2 of a small handful of friends that I will ALWAYS feel are my closest friends. This group of friends were what got me through a lot of hard times during the crazy part of life we call the teenage years (and some after). Even now, being married, living all over, not getting to talk for months on end, any time together is not enough time because you have to spend so much of it just filling in and asking what other people are up to and it almost feels like and Q and A session instead of quality time together.

So all this reminiscing made me get to thinking about how neither me and Stac have blogged and, really, the blog is a really good way to kinda keep up even though you can't be together for all of life's activities. And since this is already a pretty lengthy post (which I'm sure is really boring for a lot of you to read) I'll just post some pictures of our recent activities.

Here we go.......

We went to the Lied's Discovery museum. I remember going here on field trips all the time as a kid. As an adult, it's still really cool, and almost as fun as it was when I was a kid just to see my own kids enjoy it as much as they did. 2 thumbs up for the discovery museum.

Goofed around at Arby's...

Stac's brother went into the marines.

Zoee turned 4 and ended up getting 2 parties (thus 2 cakes).

Gus has discovered that food can be really good. And if he's in a good mood will make a really funny face and crack us all up.

And he....

Finally got a real haircut! He looks SO much better!!

And while Stac's parents were down for the birthday girl, they worked really REALLY hard and made the back yard much more fun for the kids. They built a sand box for Zoee and Gus since they spend so much of their time in Huntsville in the sand. Garage sales yielded some good finds including the slide which both kids love and the water play table thing. And the birthday girl got a pool for her birthday.

I am...

Starting the hCG diet today. It is a really great (but hard) diet. If all goes well, I am hoping to lose 25+ pounds. I am aiming high and trying to stay really positive. If you are wondering why I tricked you all with a pregnancy test, let me explain. The hCG hormone is what shows up in pregnant women pee. It's it what makes the test show positive. SO if I take a preg test in the next little while, it will be positive.

So, wish me luck. I am excited! Get ready skinny world, cause here I come!

Happy Birthday!

I can't believe it has been 4 years since my life changed forever. I love this little girl so much and I am so blessed to have her in my life. When I really think about everything that was involved in my life when Zoee was born I realize how lucky I am to have her because I came so close to not.

She means the world to me.







Happy Birthday Zoee Bernice!!
We love you!!