I love to see the temple

So obviously I'm a little blog-happy today. Seth is at work, my sister has the girls (I'm well enough to sit at the computer and type, but I don't think I'm up to chasing to wee ones around all day yet), and I'm a little burned out from watching endless hours of TV.

That being said, here's another post to enjoy.

Because I didn't have to be to the hospital until 10:30 last Monday, Seth and I decided we'd go see the new Oquirrh Temple because it's such a short drive from my aunt and uncle's house where we were staying. The temple is having its open house, but Seth and I didn't come prepared with tickets or Sunday clothes, so we just walked around the grounds. The morning light peaking through the clouds was beautiful, and I couldn't resist shooting some pictures.

The side of the temple with the light shining on the walls.

The inscription and Moroni.

The cornerstone that hasn't yet been mortared.

Across the parking lot from the temple is a church with this bench outside. As Seth said, it touched my Primary music leader heart.

The view from the bench.

After seeing the Oquirrh Temple, we still had time to kill, so we decided to drive to the recently dedicated Draper Temple. We could see it from where we were, so we just kept taking roads that seemed to lead in the right direction. A couple of u-turns and a little bit of backtracking later, we found the right place. The temple was closed because it was a Monday, so we had to walk around outside the gates.

The spire and Moroni as seen through the fence.

By the parking lot entrance.

It's amazing how many temples and churches are in Utah now. From where we were standing in the parking lot of the Draper Temple, Seth and I could see both the Oquirrh Temple and the Jordan River Temple. As we were driving from one temple to the other, we pointed out every LDS church we saw (once we spotted three on just one road).

The temple is one of my very favorite places to be, and just standing outside reminded me of that.

"Before" pictures

I found these on my CF card while downloading Bekah's birthday pictures, and I thought I might as well share. Before Seth and I left for Salt Lake and my surgery, I had him shoot some "before" pictures so once this is all said and done, I can compare my new jaw and teeth with the old jaw and teeth.

In case you doubted, I really did need this surgery.

My "before" smile. Most people don't have a mile of gums visible when they're showing off their pearly whites.

My "before" relaxed jaw. This is where my jaw naturally rested. Most people didn't see me like this from day-to-day because I have unconsciously slid my jaw forward most of my life. But when I was sleeping, this is where my jaw would fall; my lips wouldn't naturally close over my teeth.

My "before" bite. I could stick the end of my thumb up there.

Now that I'm past the surgery and on the road to recovery, I can't wait until the swelling has gone down and I get the bands removed so that I can take the "after" pictures and place them side-by-side. That will be a happy day.

Rebekah is (finally) 4!

Rebekah on her blessing day, Rebekah at 1, 2, 3 and 4.

After months and months of anticipation, Rebekah got to celebrate her birthday. It didn't matter to her that she's been getting presents since Analee's birthday (the grandparents have realized it's easier to just give them both their presents at the same time since their birthdays are so close together) or that we ate her cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to her last week because of my surgery. Bekah wanted HER birthday. And she finally got it!

Bekah woke up to discover that her room had been decorated with princesses and that her fan had been transformed from plain Jane white to white with pink flowers and purple butterflies. She got to pick which dress to wear to church (her pink Easter dress), which shoes to wear (her princess shoes that go tap, tap, tap) and which cereal to eat (the one with the different colors).

At church, she gave a talk about Jesus turning water into wine with minimal help from Seth. Being able to sit on the stand and talk into the microphone was enough of a birthday present for her, but then the Primary children sang "Happy Birthday" to her, and she got "the biggest candy bar I ever saw" from the bishop.

After coming home and reporting to Mommy (who couldn't witness the talk or the singing due to her recovery), Bekah got to open her present.

Rebekah ripping the paper off her "forf" birthday present.

Hooray! A Disney princess scooter!

Months ago, Bekah had told us that she wanted a scooter for her birthday because her cousin Mack has one. We were fortunate enough to find one that has princesses on it and two back wheels so she doesn't have to figure out that whole balance thing quite yet.

Bekah finished off her day with her favorite lunch (mac and cheese), a visit to Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis, an otter pop, some Goofy cartoons, a phone call from Grandma Scott, and her favorite pajamas.

Rebekah's favorite colors are pink and red. Her favorite foods are "cheesy noodles" and quesadillas. She loves princesses, giraffes, Primary and her family. Her favorite activities include riding her bike (and now her scooter), painting with water colors, singing, playing with her dolls and hearing stories from anyone who will share them.

We all love our little Bekah Lou! When Ana heard Bekah get up yesterday morning, she said in her little toddler-speak, "Oh! I'm going to see my best friend, Rebekah. I'll be right back." Bekah is a good big sister and a good helper to her mom and dad.

Adventures in surgery

I could be blogging about so many other fun and cute things right now: Bekah's "birthday" where we got to eat her princess cake while I could still eat solid foods (to come in a later post), or our family trip to the zoo with Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis in celebration for both the girls' birthdays (also to come in a later post), but instead I'm going to blog about the not-so-fun and definitely-not-cute thing going on in our lives right now. My orthognathic surgery, that is.

Thanks to a great oral surgeon (who happens to be related to me) and the generosity and outpouring of love from so many family members and ward members, I didn't feel at all nervous about the surgery in the days leading up to it. Sure, I had a hard time sleeping the night before (how COULD you let me down, Benadryl?), but I think it was more because of anticipation than anxiety. And I did get a few butterflies when I got my IV, but who wouldn't?

Anyway, the surgery went "perfectly," according to the doctor. He ended up moving my upper jaw up an extra millimeter (for a total of six), but he moved the bottom jaw just the 9 mm he had planned on previously.

Right now I'm extremely grateful for two different flavors of Carnation Instant Breakfast and one flavor of Ensure, as well as the seven different flavors of juice we brought to Utah with us. I'm also grateful for syringes (so I can drink said liquids). And for medicine. Glorious medicine. Pain killers, anti-nausea medication, decongestants, mouth wash, hydrogen peroxide, antibiotics ... they're all on my happy list right now. (By the way, if this is at all disconnected or rambling, I'm blaming it on the hydrocodone I took 10 minutes ago.)

I'm also thankful for technology. Immediately after hearing from the surgeon, Seth called both his mom (in Idaho Falls) and my mom (currently in Texas) to let them know that everything went well. And I got to video chat with Rebekah today while my incredible mother-in-law watches our girls (Ana was napping). Although, when I saw "video chat," I mean "Seth chatted while I showed Bekah my swollen face and signed 'I love you' to her."

So all in all, it's going as well as can be expected. Seth and I will stay with my Uncle Ross and Aunt Susan (whom we can't thank enough) until Thursday when we will meet with the assistant surgeon who will make sure that everything is still where it's supposed to be. Then we'll drive home, spend the next four days at home, and then drive to Salt Lake and back next Tuesday for my first follow-up with the surgeon. At that point, I will be able to remove my bands for a short amount of time each day, brush behind my teeth and start eating soft foods.

Good times. Seth has taken some extremely gorgeous pictures of me in my puffy and half-out-of-it state, but I don't know that I'm brave enough to post them yet. You'll just have to use your imagination. Just be kind!

Rebekah is (almost) 4!: The cake saga

(Written before the surgery ... posted afterward because I was waiting on pictures.) Since I'll still be sucking all my nutrition from a syringe when Bekah actually turns 4, we had a pseudo-birthday for her June 4.

Months ago as I was planning ahead for the surgery, I had Bekah pick out a cake she wanted. She chose the stegosaurus cake. I was totally fine with that. It required baking a 9x13 cake, cutting off some parts and moving them around, slapping some frosting on the whole thing and decorating it with candy. Not a problem.

Shortly after that, however, Rebekah started her "princess stage." She insisted (in a princessly fashion) that she didn't want a stegosaurus cake. She wanted a princess cake.

I searched the intertubes for a princess cake that wouldn't require a degree in culinary art to make. Most princess cakes are crazy-hard and include castles with turrets. But then I found something I thought I could handle. It's a cake where the princess is just a Barbie stuffed into a tall, round cake that's made to look like her skirt.

So I mixed up a box of strawberry cake mix (it had to be pink, of course), dumped it into a Pyrex pitcher, and baked it. But because Barbie is such a tall, leggy thing, the cake would only come up to her knees. So I mixed up another box of strawberry cake mix and put it into two 9" round pans. After everything had cooled down, I stacked the two 9" round cakes on top of each other, put the Pyrex cake on top of that, and frosted the whole thing.

In my princess cake Web research, I saw a lot of Barbie cakes that had just normal frosting on them. But the makers of said cakes wanted to dress them up, so they used all sorts of fancy frosting tips to make decorations on the skirts. I didn't know that I could handle that, so I instead found a recipe for fondant so that the skirt could be nice and smooth and not-s0-difficult to construct.

I should have realized that my first attempt at fondant would not be a walk in the park.

First, I ran out of powdered sugar. Gratefully, I caught Seth before he left his office and asked if he could pick some up on his way home. Then I had to mix and knead and mix and knead the fondant. Then I had to roll it out to 1/8" thickness (I don't know if I ever actually got it that thin). Then I had to cut it out in the shape of a gigantic circle. Then I had to cut out a small circle in the middle for Barbie's waist. Then I tried to put the skirt on the cake.

First attempt: massive failure.

Just like London Bridges, this is falling down.

The skirt tore apart in several places. So I had to gather it all back up, roll it out and try again. This time, as per Seth's suggestion, I peeled it straight from the wax paper I had rolled it out on onto the cake.

Second attempt: close enough.

Peeling the fondant directly from the wax paper to the cake worked better.

This time it worked better, but I quickly realized that the gigantic circle wasn't nearly gigantic enough for two mixes-worth of strawberry cake. So with a little bit of Play-dough like patchwork to the back of the skirt, the cake got covered (thanks to the entire Grover clan helping, little girls included).

So it's not the most picturesque of princess cakes, but it held together long enough to stick some candles in, blow some candles out, take some candles out and eat some strawberry cake.

Along with her princess cake, Rebekah got one present (the other she has to wait for her actual birthday to receive). I don't know how many times she kissed her new Ariel doll. I think she likes it.

The princess cake and Rebekah. If you don't look too closely, you'll think that the cake even looks okay. Oh ... and the headband was totally Bekah's doing.

Blowing out her candles!

Holy mandible, Batman!

Yesterday, Seth and I made a there-and-back trip to Salt Lake to visit with my oral surgeon and get my final workup done. Here's what we learned:

• VF Factory Outlet rocks! Okay, obviously not related to our office visit, but we had some extra time to kill before the appointment. Between the two of us, we bought nine pairs of pants and paid $110 (including tax).
• The procedures I will be having done next Monday are a maxillary lefort I osteotomy (upper jaw) and bilateral sagittal osteotomy (lower jaw).
• I will be on a liquid diet for the first week following the surgery, but after Dr. Egbert checks out my recovery progress and removes my bands for the first time, I will be able to eat soft foods like Jell-O, yogurt, pudding, macaroni and cheese and Spaghetti-Os.
• My upper jaw will be moved 5 mm up, and my lower jaw will be moved 9 mm forward.
• I should be able to return to my Primary chorister duties four to five weeks after the surgery.
• The surgery itself will take about two hours.
• I may experience nose bleeds and a sore throat following surgery, due to the tube that will be shoved through my nose and down my throat. Fun stuff. Gratefully, I will be out when they shove said tube through my face.
  
• Apparently, I have freakishly big bumps underneath my tongue that interfere with impressions of my bottom jaw. This leads to a tremendous amount of pain as the dentist/orthodontist/oral surgeon pushes the impression tray down over my teeth. I wondered why that always hurt.

Anyway, those are the highlights. Now all we need to do is finish painting the living room/kitchen, put our house back together, buy Carnation Instant Breakfast and cranberry juice, pack our bags and go to Utah.

We will leave Sunday afternoon (June 7) and return Thursday (June 11). As mentioned before, we'll be sure to take pictures and post them. Bet you can't wait!

too soon

Bekah, sighing wistfully and looking at the folded laundry: "I hope when I'm older that I can have some bras."

Analee is 2!

Analee one day old, Analee one year old, Analee two years old.

We celebrated Analee's birthday on May 24 by going to church. Okay, only because her birthday happened to be on a Sunday this year. But we did sing "Happy Birthday" to her in nursery, and then we came home and had our family festivities. These included presents:

Getting ready to dive into the gift bag.

Present No. 1: a kangaroo doll that has many buttons, zippers and Velcro tabs to open and close. About half the time, Ana forgets what kind of animal it is and refers to it as "my bunny rabbit."

Present No. 2: A "choo choo choo train" set, as Ana calls it.

... and cake, along with another rendition of "Happy Birthday."

Ana picked out her cakes months ahead of time. It's a ladybug cake. Well, it's supposed to be a ladybug. I'm no professional cake maker.

We won't know Analee's statistics (weight, height, etc.) until we go in for her checkup in July, but here are some more facts about our favorite curly headed brunette.

Analee is beginning to learn her colors, although she doesn't know all of them yet. She talks in complete sentences, and when I ask her questions such as, "Ana, why did you take off your shoes?" she often replies, "Because." Her favorite TV show is "Little Einsteins." If I'm ever working in the yard and wonder where Ana has run off to, the first place I check is the sandbox; we regularly change sandy diapers and have to wash her gritty feet off.

Ana loves to give hugs to whomever lifts her out of her high chair. She is at the point where she can climb up into her high chair and car seat "all by mineself." Ana loves to sing, and often sings songs she has made up about people she knows ("Uncle Jason, Uncle Jason, UNCLE JASON!") or recent happenings.

Although we had to wait a long time for it, Ana now has curly brown hair long enough to do in pigtails or a half-ponytail on top of her head. She has big brown eyes and a dimple in her right cheek that's visible when she smiles. She wears a size 6 shoe and clothes that range in size from 24 months to 3T.

We love our little "Ana Banana" and "Cute Curly Sue." Here's to another great year of learning and growing!

Something's fishy

We spent our Memorial Day eating watermelon, gutting fish and going on poop hunts. ("We're going on a poop hunt. Gonna find some big stuff. What a beautiful day! We're not grossed out!")

Seth's Uncle Doug was kind enough to take all the kiddies and their parents out on his boat on Henry's Lake. This was my second time on a motor boat, and all the trauma I suffered during a high school boater's safety program seemed long gone; I didn't even have flashbacks of the slide show with boating accident fatalities.

The girls loved the boat as well. Fearless Analee kept trying to stand up on the seat and lean over far enough to test the buoyancy of her life jacket. Good thing Seth caught a hold of her leg in time.

Here are the fishing highlights:

• I had the first bite of the day on our boat. Unfortunately, I was busy taking pictures of the girls and didn't realize I had a fish on my line until Seth shouted, "Andrea! What are you doing? You've got a fish!" By the time I set the camera down and grabbed the pole I had been holding with my knees, the fish was gone.
• Seth's brother Jason ended up catching the first fish due to my negligence.
• Seth caught the second fish, but he caught it with my pole. I had handed it to him so I could fill up one of the girls' juice cups.
• I caught the third fish of the day (on Seth's pole ... he was busy casting mine or something), and the group's only brook trout. (It was also the smallest of the group's fish, but I am not daunted by this because, hey, at least my fish was special. BROOK TROUT!)
• Seth caught the boat's last fish (on his own pole, mind you), and the biggest one.

Enjoy the snapshots:

Analee chomping black licorice and enjoying the ride.

Seth reeling in his big catch.

Ever-cautious Rebekah wouldn't steer the boat like the other kids did on the way in, but by the time we were ready to head back to the shore, she wanted a try. Uncle Doug let her steer the boat in circles before he straightened us out.

Grandma Susan, Analee, Calvin, Seth and Rebekah with our catch of the day. Seth tried to persuade Bekah to hold the stringer for the picture ("You don't have to touch the fish, Bekah. Just hold the chain.") to no avail.

Andrea with her brook trout. Man ... I love those braces. Can't get enough of 'em.

To see more, click here.

Guess what we're eating tonight? I'll let you guess. It starts with an F and ends with "ish."

After a long morning on the lake, we went back to Seth's grandparents' cabin to eat lunch and pack up. While Seth and I were loading our bags into the van, Bekah excitedly reported, "I found moose poop! Come see!" After that, she had to go on a hunt for any other droppings she could find.

We came home last night, exhausted but happy.

To complete the vacation weekend, the girls and I actually slept in until 7:45 this morning. Woohoo! (Seth had no such luxury; he had an assignment at the bishop's storehouse at 5 a.m.)

Gearing up

In 18 days, Seth and I will be traveling to Salt Lake so I can spend a sleepless night at my Aunt Susan's house before going to the hospital the next morning. Although I've known for half my life that I needed this surgery to fix my jaw, I'm not sure I'm ready. It's kind of like waiting for a baby. Allow me to draw parallels:

By the time I go under the knife, I will have had braces for nine months. At first, the braces were exciting—they were the first step toward having the surgery. But the excitement quickly wore off as I experienced raw spots, canker sores and loose brackets (the braces-equivalent of morning sickness). I have monthly orthodontic checkups, which result in thicker wires and sore teeth.

Now that I'm in the “last tri,” I CANNOT wait until this is over and done with and I have my new baby—a set of jaws that line up the way they're supposed to. I know the recovery will be less-than-fabulous; I'll be sucking liquid out of a syringe for a week, and after that I'll be limited to soft foods like yogurt and ice cream.

I'm experiencing my own kind of nesting. I want to have the middle floor completely painted and put back together before the Big Day. I whipped up a pair of car organizers that hang over the front seats on a whim yesterday. I've started stocking up on apple juice and Ensure. There are half a dozen meals in the freezer for after we return from Utah.

I'm getting ready to pack my hospital bag, too. This bag will be slightly different than the bags I've packed for Grover babies #1 and #2, though. I'll be taking a travel pillow so I can sleep upright, a Magna Doodle so I can communicate, and Breathe Right strips so I can respire since my mouth will be stuffed with gauze and a splint.

Fun stuff.

Don't worry about missing out on anything. We'll be taking the trusty Nikon so as to record this momentous occasion. I'm sure my swollen face and bruised neck won't be as cute as a newborn, but that's all we'll have to offer this time around.

Photo dump

I can't stand that we have ultra-cute pictures of the family just sitting here; they must be posted for the world to see! So enjoy the hodge podge of images. (Click on them to see larger versions.)

April 5, 2009. Seth and I decided to take advantage of a rare sunny day to feed the ducks some bread at the Idaho Falls Greenbelt.

Ana, who is not very adept at throwing yet, decided she could drop her bread in the water for a gutsy duck that would dare to come close enough to eat it.

The girls and their bread.

April 25, 2009. Seth's sister Rachel wanted to host an Easter egg hunt for our girls and their cousins, but we didn't get around to it until weeks after Easter. It didn't matter to the young'uns, though--they enjoyed the hunt and the candy nonetheless. Analee has found an alternate use for her bucket; she's carrying around her sippy cup.

Tav found an egg on the playhouse's picnic table.

Mack is searching ...

Bekah found one back by the fence.

Tav with his spoils.

May 7, 2009. For some reason or another, I decided to shoot pictures of Seth playing with the girls. Looking mighty pensive there, Seth.

I had to include this one because of Ana's crazy hair. Teehee!

Analee, Seth and Rebekah playing with Ana's Little People house.

May 10, 2009. Ana had woken up from her nap, so we went to retrieve her. Apparently she had been busy making her baby doll/blankie contraption.

Now you can see the base for her creation: the musical aquarium.

Bekahism #14

While eating breakfast ...

Bekah: Mom, is it a good idea to eat gun powder and then swallow a match?
Andrea: What do you think?
Bekah: No. But Daffy Duck does it!

Chop chop with a little wax

So I realized that the "after" pics of the twice-previous post don't do the 'do justice. I had just come straight from the hairdresser, and I think we all know that we don't look our best without a little bit of styling. Well, maybe that's just me.

Either way, here I am all stylized. I'm still experimenting with ways to do my new hair, but I think I like this one. (Seth says it's sassy. )

This is a mommy camera self-portrait, so try not to laugh too hard. Nasty flash shadow ... deer-in-the-headlights look ... lovely closet door in the background ...

Nearly six years ago

Feeling a bit nostalgic, I decided to scan a few engagement, bridal, temple and reception pictures dating back to 2003. Those were the days before my dad had/used his incredibly awesome digital SLR, so don't mind the dust spots from the prints.

To view the entire selection, click here. Otherwise, enjoy one from each venue:

Seth and I at the columns on Constitutional Avenue in Idaho Falls. I've shot many a senior/engagement pic there myself.

One of my bridal pictures shot at Sportsman's Park in Idaho Falls.

Seth and I outside the Idaho Falls temple following our wedding on August 22, 2003. My Grandpa Wirkus was able to perform the sealing.

Seth and I outside the Iona City Building where we held our reception on August 23, 2003.

Chop chop

When I left the house at 8 p.m., I looked like this:

If you look closely, you can see the traces of white paint on my face and in my hair.

When I returned home shortly after 9 p.m., I looked like this:

The first two things I noticed: (1) My neck looks humongously long. (2) My elf ear is prominent.

Why the change? Because I can.