New hardware

If I keep this up, some day I may be more metal than skin and bones.

Eleven years ago, I had my first and last MRI. I had torn my ACL while playing JV softball, and I had surgery to fix it. At the time, they used huge titanium screws to secure my new ligament in place. A few years later, they switched to screws that actually dissolve over time. But because I missed that boat, I still have those giant screws in my knee.

Now I have matching hardware in my head. The screws are a lot smaller, but there are a lot more than two.

When I visited my oral surgeon in Salt Lake on Thursday, these greeted me from the light board in my exam room:

My lovely skull. It's hard to see the screws and plates in this one ...

... so I took the liberty of pointing them out in this shot. Of course, I have matching plates and screws on the right side, but I was too lazy to duplicate the arrows and rotate them around.

Fun, huh?

So in case you haven't drawn the connection, I will never have another MRI unless I want all the metal in my body to be ripped out. I once saw something similar happen on House, and I don't want it to happen to me anytime soon. Or ever.

Ana-ism #1

Today, while shopping at Target.

Ana: (Singing at the top of her lungs) Heavenly Father! We thank thee for the day! We thank thee for the day, the day, the day.

Bekahism #16

Bekah: Mom, do you want to hear a funny joke I made up?
Andrea: Yes, I do!
Bekah: Don't let any dogs in our house, because if you do, I'LL SNEEZE MY BRAINS OUT! Hahahaha!
Andrea: ??
Bekah: I'm allergic to dogs.

(Note: No, she's not.)

I think I'm brave enough now ...

As promised, here are some post-op photos. Eventually I want to have a whole album dedicated to before and after shots, but I want to wait until all the swelling is gone and my bands are off for good.

Me in the hospital room shortly after being wheeled in from recovery. I've got the ice packs strapped on my face, the IV jammed in my hand, the oxygen mask over my nose and mouth (after both this surgery and my ACL repair in '98, my oxygen levels have been too low to go without assistance), the compression socks on my legs and the blood pressure cuff on my arm.

The day after surgery when I was released from the hospital. Love the swollen lips, half-out-of-it eyes, and last but not least, the Jaw Bra.

Post-op day 5: Pretty much the peak of my swelling and bruising. Gratefully, I didn't bruise nearly as badly as I thought I would. If you look next to my chin and under my eyes, you'll see the patches of yellow.

Today, post-op day 16: Very little swelling remains, and the bruises are long-gone.

"I seep in a bid dull bed" (translation: "I sleep in a big girl bed")

Our little Analee is growing up. She can go on the big potty. (Disclaimer: She's not completely potty trained yet; I'm waiting until I don't have to talk through my teeth before we switch her over to underwear.) She only needs her baba (the Grover family way of saying "pacifier") at naptime and bedtime.

So it made sense to convert her crib to a toddler bed last week.

The transition has been remarkably smooth. I remember when we traded in Bekah's crib for her first "big girl bed." We also had her trade rooms because at the time, I was 8 months pregnant with Analee, and we knew we'd need the crib and nursery for the new arrival.

Bekah would NOT stay in her bed. She wouldn't even stay in her room. That's when we discovered how awesome doorknob mitts are.

So far, Analee has only gotten out of her bed for true emergencies: poopy diapers and spiders on her ceiling. Both problems have been quickly remedied so as to assure her naptime/bedtime comfort.

The girls were downstairs watching TV while I made the conversion, so it was a total surprise to them when I called them upstairs to see what I'd been working on. Here are the pics:

The big girl bed.

Ana seems pleased.

Of course, Bekah had to check it out too.

Analee diving on.

Since then, Analee has had to share her news with anyone who is willing to listen. She even has invited several people upstairs to see for themselves. Not everyone actually goes upstairs, because not everyone understands her toddler-speak. We'll know she's a really big girl when we don't have to translate what she says for everyone.

if it's ok by jack bauer, it's ok by me

I just had to share this hilarious video. This guy is so cool he makes me look even less cool than I already am, which is pretty hard to do, because I've worked hard to become as uncool as I am. (That was a terrible, terrible sentence.)



See, waterboarding isn't so bad. It even has a catchy tune!

Imaginary friend

It's not unusual for a 4-year-old to have an imaginary friend, from what I hear. But I've never heard of another 4-year-old having an imaginary friend that's so ... weird.

Bekah's been telling us about her friend, Water-Eye Weather-Goap, for months. Seth and I were stymied when it came to her friend's name, but one day when we were driving in the van and listening to one of Bekah's books on tape, Scuttle the seagull told Ariel the mermaid that one of the human treasures she had found was a "wobble-eyed weather snoop." Seth and I turned to look at each other with our jaws dropped.

Anyway, to help the world learn about and appreciate Bekah's friend, I asked her a few questions.

Me: What does Water-Eye Weather-Goap look like?
Bekah: Huh. Brown skin. She is just small. She's 1-year-old. And she loves Otter Pops, just like I do. And she has a castle. A toy castle. And she has a toy king and queen that have wheels to move around and buttons and switches that turn on and off whenever she wants them to move.

Me: What color hair and eyes does she have?
Bekah: Huh. Pink hair. Pink eyes.

Me: Where does WEWG live?
Bekah: Jericho. Jericho. Jericho!

Me: Does WEWG have a family?
Bekah: Hm. Sister WEWG and Brother WEWG. She has lots of brothers and sisters, too. Can I tell you their names? Dungit and Wingit. They're a boy and girl. And Wonnit and Hooey. And Wone. And Ing. And Sing. And Weah. Hey! That's all her brothers and sisters!

Me: What does WEWG like to do?
Bekah: She loves to paint. She paints all day, and she loves the best foods that I like.

Me: What foods are the best foods?
Bekah: The favorite foods that are my favorite foods.

Me: Which are ... ?
Bekah: Hot dog and pizza and corn dog and quesadilla and tortilla and cheese and ham. And that's her favorite food!

Me: Bekah, can you tell me about WEWG's parents? What do they like to do?
Bekah: They love to paint. Even they have a kitchen that's blue and a living room that's brown. And a floor that is black. And a roof that is orange. And they're painting their house just like we painted our house.

Bekah: Do you want to know what?
Me: What?
Bekah: She loves princesses. And dollies. She has dollies just like I do. And she has princesses and things that have princess pictures. A scooter, and princesses on her walls, and princess hearts with princesses and butterflies and flowers on her fan.

Me: Why do you like WEWG so much?
Bekah: Because she's my best cousin of all because she was born in June! And she's four! And I'm four! She was born the same time when I was! (Singing.) She was born when I was born, when I was born. She was born when I was born. (Stops singing.) Can we be finished now?

To the zoo

(I apologize for the last several posts being out of chronological order. Oh, well.)

Our family has kind of started a tradition of going to the zoo on or around the girls' birthdays. We knew I may not feel up to a zoo trip after the surgery, so Seth and I planned on visiting the Tautphaus Park Zoo the Saturday before we went to Salt Lake. That morning (June 6), we woke up to a still-drizzly sky (see previous post) and were disheartened. We had spent the previous week hyping up our zoo trip, and Bekah was especially excited to see the new sloth bear.

We tried explaining to the girls that we may have to wait several weeks to go to the zoo, but it didn't help them feel any better about the situation. At one point, I found Bekah crying up in her room about missing out on the sloth bear. In that moment, I decided we'd tough it out.

Keeping in mind the weather, we packed up the umbrella and our jackets along with the wagon. We called Seth's parents to see if they wanted to accompany us, and we all went to the zoo together.

Turns out, a dreary sky makes for a great zoo visit. We got to see all the animals, and some of them were more active than I've ever seen them on a sunny day. It even stopped raining shortly after our arrival and didn't start up again until we were headed out the exit.

Anyway, here are some of the pictorial highlights:

Analee and Rebekah checking out the wallaby (left side) that jumped past the fenced-in enclosure where it usually dwells. Shortly after this, the wallaby hopped onto the path, and Analee chased it back where it belongs. She's not cautious, that one.

Rebekah (and her fruit snacks), Andrea, Analee (and her fruit snacks) and Seth ridinig on top of the tiger statue.

Analee combing the goat's hair at the petting zoo. As soon as we got to the goats, Ana ran over and started petting them. Bekah didn't even come in through the petting zoo gate until she realized that Ana hadn't been eaten. Bekah's kind of a scaredy cat.

But finally she decided that if Analee and Grandma Susan were petting the goats, she could too.

Analee and Grandma Susan hatching out of an egg in the play area of the petting zoo.

Analee and Grandpa Dennis pulling the wagon along the path back to the van.

Cats and dogs

No, this isn't a post about a new member of the Grover family; we're still pet-free. Rather, the title refers to the phrase "it's raining cats and dogs."

On Friday, June 5, Seth and I decided it would be fun to load up the double stroller, some stale hot dog buns and our family to go to the Idaho Falls Greenbelt for a walk.

We parked the van on Memorial Drive by the statue of the trapper. At the time, the sky was clear and the temperature was nice. We walked south along Memorial, crossed the Broadway Bridge, came back up River Parkway and stopped to feed the ducks. Then we loaded the girls back in the stroller and continued on our way.

By the time we reached the boat dock, Seth and I noticed some big, dark clouds coming from the west. We commented on them, took notice of the blue sky above ourselves and kept going. After we crossed the bridge on Highway 20 and started back up the other bank of the river, the rain started to fall.

At first, it was just a little rain. Seth asked if I wanted to run to get back to the van faster. Those who know me know I don't like to run unless there's a fire behind me or a volleyball in front of me. Besides that, I was wearing $2 flip-flops and didn't think it would feel very good to pound the pavement in those. But after the rain picked up, I started jogging.

Pretty soon, the raindrops had grown to the size of marbles and was coming down hard enough to sting. Seth told me he'd run ahead to get the van. He said I should stop where we could find some shelter and wait it out for him. We were still about half a mile away from the van at this point.

He ran off, and I continued running and pushing the stroller to try and get as far as we could. But it wasn't long before the rain turned to hail and started coming at us horizontally. I ran to the nearest tree I could find, pulled both girls out of the stroller, knelt down right on the asphalt path, sat the girls down in my lap and encircled them with my arms, my back to the torrential weather.

Both girls were hysterical. Ana was screaming and crying. Bekah was yelling and shivering. We were completely soaked through. I started singing "I Love to See the Temple" at the top of my lungs to try and calm us all down as we waited for Seth.

Two cars stopped at separate times, and the drivers offered to take us to our vehicle, but I knew that if we all piled in someone else's car, Seth wouldn't be able to find us. I turned them both down, but by the time the third car drove up, I knew we didn't want to wait it out any longer.

After she shouted an invitation for us to seek shelter, the mother from the suburban ran out to get one of the girls, and I picked up the other and ran to their car. We dropped both girls in their backseat along with the family's two young boys who were already sitting there. I pushed the door shut and backed up back onto the grass so Seth could see me when he came to pick us up. He came along, and the mother got back out of the suburban and helped Seth move the girls back to our van while I folded up the stroller and threw it in the back. We shouted our thank yous to the kind family who stopped to help us before jumping into our own seats and driving away.

Gratefully, we still had our picnic blanket in the van from a previous night, so I threw it around the cold, wet girls (who each had obtained a piece of licorice from the owners of the suburban while I waited in the rain), and we drove home where we changed out of our soaked clothes and let the girls take a nice, warm bath.

You may think that we had been foolhardy. You may think that we were negligent, idiotic parents who didn't come prepared and allowed their children to wear only T-shirts, shorts and sandals during the biggest storm of the season. But if you were in Idaho Falls that night, you know we weren't total nincompoops. This was a freak storm, people. Idaho isn't like this in June.

I tell you what, though. The next time we think about going for a walk around the Greenbelt, I'm going to throw an umbrella into the bottom of that stroller.

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!