quick update

i finally peed. was quite the process after having a catheter for 3 days. i'm doing a bit better with walking and am sitting up in a chair at the moment. i'm still walking with a walker, but i'm atleast moving. i'm exhausted and will be going to bed for the night soon. i will be discharged tomorrow. i'm pretty darned sore, and the epidural was removed and has definately worn off. the pump pump helps but i'm definately needing the pills as well.
night

its me

hi. bri has his laptop so i'm here for a few. its been a long few days ive had alot of dizzyness and nausea. walking is pretty painful. he removed 18 lbs of skin.
i will update more later

update

I taalked to Brian and he said that Heather was doing okay. She was a little dizzy probably from the anesthesia.I will continue to update as I get more information.

here is the latest update on Heather. She is out of surgery and heading for recovery. Brian said they removed about 17 pounds of tissue. Every thing went well. Thank you for your prayers.

Updates

My mom will come and always update this thread. check back.

today is the day

WOW. today is it. my surgery. i can't believe time has gone so fast. Last night I had a bit of an emotional time. After dinnerr and all that it just hit me. There was nothing else between that moment and the surgery. All of my friends and family were amazing and a HUGE support system. I appreciate all the phone calls and texts and encouragement last night! We will be leaving in less than 2 hours. WOW. i will add to this post some pictures taken this morning of all of the lines and markings so you can see what will be done. The pictures are nude, because that is the ONLY way to see all of the markings.




love to all!
Here are the photos. the vertical lines are guide lines and will not be cut. the horizontal lines that go all the way around my body are the lines that will be cut. EVERYTHING between the horizontal lines will be taken away. AGAIN don't click the link unless you are completely ok with what you will see!

My doc showed us the areas where we could write messages to him. i kept thinking of something brilliant to write. this morning i just passed the marker around and each one got the opportunity to write or draw whatever they wanted! Jace drew a picture of me! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!! *updated with photos*

We hope everyone has a super great thanksgiving! I will update our day in photos on this post so check back in! :)
Here is our turkey! 20lbs!
Here is our turkey all prepped and stuffed and ready to go in the oven!

the turkey was so big we had to take out all the extra racks and the bottom rack is sagging under the weight of the turkey. oops! :)

we just finished decorating the tree! 2500 lights and tons of ornaments. it is only 10ft this year but looks great! :) The kids had alot of fun going thru all of the ornaments and talking about all the stories and memories behind them! I even have mine all the way back to my first christmas!

turkey completely done! it turned out beautifully!

all the food, NOT counting 4 pies! :)

our thanksgiving group. the right side got blurred but we couldn't get everyone back together again to retry! :)

Missy and John, my SIL and BIL

Bri and I! I hate this photo. I was definately not ready for the picture to be taken! hehe

My parents

our good friends connie and bob!

we had an amazing day and thank all of our family and friends for that!!!

Family Reunion :)

what a weekend! this was the 1st time ever that all 10 of us have been together EVER! It was our family of 6, Brian's sister and her hubby, and Brian's brother and his wife! Friday night was adults night out. Saturday was family time. The kids LOVED it! Here are some photos from our super special weekend!

Time flies

WOW. it's friday. 1 week from now i will be about halfway thru my operation! I can't believe it's coming so fast! Today I ran errands with my little lady! I bought some comfy pants and tshirts for after surgery. I will be out of jeans for quite a few weeks!
This morning Bri and I did a little bit of christmas shopping from the comforts of our office. :) Gotta love online shopping! I still have tons to do but I'll get it done, mostly...i think! :)
This evening starts our weekend! Brian's brother and his wife are flying in. We will meet for dinner as just the 6 adults tonight. all 3 siblings, and their spouses, in 1 place without any kids. WOW. quite an accomplishment. Tomorrow we are getting together with the kids for some fun times, and then will split up girls and boys in the afternoon, coming back for a family dinner! Bri is beyond excited to see his brother! It will be a great time.
I'm doing pretty good. Alot going on. I've got alot on my mind and have spent most every evening out. I've roamed walmart and target, i've driven all over with music blaring, i've spent time on the phone and with friends. I'm just trying to sort it all out fo myself. More updates will come on that as i get it all organized in my head! :)
the kids are doing good. busy as always. super excited for the holidays. ben got off the bus today with a feathered turkey hat. he was so proud of it. the bus driver said he clenched it tight in his little hands the whole way home! :) Yesterday bri and i put the littlest 2 on the scales. my youngest little darling weighted in at 25 pounds!!!! my dear sweet under eating 3 1/2 year old weighs in at 29 to 30 pounds! Go figure! :)
i've have lost 8 lbs that last 2 weeks so i'm pretty pleased about that!
anyways i'm off to watch a touch of TV i think. it's going to be a busy next few days so i better grab a few quiet moments now!
pics to come soon!

long drives

I'm still here. Just a bit more behind on blogging lately. It's been so busy. I'm rushing trying to get everything together and organized and ready for my surgery. I only have like 9 days left till my surgery and 1 week left until my family arrives! And this weekend my BIL and SIL are coming into town. I'm excited to get to see them and spend some time together. I feel like we hardly know them, so it will be nice to spend some time together!
Jace came home from school today with 2 large knots and bruises, 1 on each eye. his school called me in advance and let me know. Apparently Jace and another little boy accidentally crashed into each other. looks painful.
bri is really struggling right now. alot of stuff and pressure at work. i won't go into details out of respect for him, but it hasn't been very pretty. I'm not sure how he is going to do as i'm going thru my surgery recovery and such.
I'm doing good. I am still mostly excited for my upcoming surgery but i am a bit nervous now as the time gets closer. i'm nervous about the pain management afterwards. i'm nervous about how quickly i'll be able to be up and moving around. i'm worried about how the kids will do, about how brian will do.
lately i've been going out in the evenings by myself and just driving around for a bit. i put in a cd, turn it up as loud as i can and just sing along and think. brian has asked what i think about, but hasn't complained about my going out. it's just time i really need right now. alot of things i'm working thru and processing right now. i'm ok, don't want to freak anyone out. just alot i'm trying to sort out.
today i had a phone conversation. it was definately a blast from the past. it was good and bad. it was weird. i'm not quite sure what i think, but i think ultimately it could be good. we'll see.
wow that's been alot of rambling. tonight is dave ramsey. tomorrow i'm going frame shopping with a friend, and then baking. friday is LOTS of shopping. gotta get all my yarn, comfy pants, and christmas shopping. friday evening is out with both my BIL's and SIL's for an adults dinner night! Saturday and Sunday is time with family. next week i don't even want to think about yet. i promise photos soon.

Musical and basics

Last night was Emily's musical at school. She did great and they had alot of fun! If you want to see the musical and some photos click HERE
In other news. I've been working on a quilt and after 8 something hours yesterday I finished quilting it. I'm going to bind it this morning and then it's done! I'm also working on Brian's stocking. i'm maybe 1/3 of the way done! So far I have finished my stocking, and Emilys! I'm going to pick out the pattern for Jace, Ben and Ari's this weekend and get all the wool next week so I can finish them all during my recovery!
This weekend is BAKING time! i'm super excited! My SIL and I will spend the day saturday making yummy stuff!
Then it's on to decorating sunday! i love this time of year!
2 weeks from right now i will be in surgery! all of my labs are done, all the paperwork, all the preop appts, signed off by all docs, and completely paid for in full! i'm so happy to have all that done! all that is left is buying my supply of comfy pants for after surgery! :)

Playful Ben this morning

Time is Flying!

I can't believe how fast time is going right now! My surgery is in 17 days! WOW! Today is my pre-op with my family doc! I'm so excited to get to see him! He's helped thru so much of this insurance battle over the last 9 months! Not to mention just being a major support system, sounding board, and a great listener! I love my family doc! :)
I've gotten some things done, and have lots left to do. This weekend I spent as much time as possible just hanging around with my family! this coming weekend my SIL and I are going to get together for the Moore Holiday Baking Extravaganza 2008! Then after that Bri is very excited to start the Moore Christmas Spectacular 2008, christmas decorating! Bri is a christmas nut and we have so much fun with the holidays. I'm sad that I'm going to miss alot of it, so we are trying to adjust early so I can still be apart of as much as possible!
Thursday is Emily's musical at school. She has a signing part and is super excited!
Yesterday was Ari's first Toddler Yoga! She did great and had alot of fun! It will definately be good for her flexibility issues! :)
The rest of my week is going to be focused on finishing Emily's stocking and finishing up a quilt I'm working on! Busy Busy!

Oh and on a crap note. Rockwell Collins. They are laying off here in Iowa. They are now not getting their raises in December, they MAY get them in April, but not retroactive back to December if they do get them. they are raising the cost of our crap insurance...effective in January of course. And they have upped UNPAID OT from 5% to 10% a week. All of this because of Boeing's strike, and a bit because of the economy. I won't give my blunt honest opinion on this, as I don't want to start a fight. BUT most of you know me well, so I'm sure you can hear in your mind what I would say! :)

Great Evening

Tonight was a great night! In general we had 6 hours out with some friends of ours, with NO kids! We had dinner at applebees and had a great time eating our own food without little hands and getting to freely talk! After dinner we headed to the movies. We saw Zach and Miri Make a Porno. OMG. That is truely all I know to say. It was probably the funniest movie I have ever seen in my entire life. I've never heard so much laughing in a movie theater! After the movie we headed to black light, disco ball bowling. Oh and the bowling alley serves the largest freaking alcoholic beverages i've ever seen. We laughed at each other and had a great time even though I lost! :) We came home to a clean quiet house and a happy babysitter.
Life is good!
now for sleep.

Snow

We were supposed to get light snow no accumulation. Here is my back deck at the moment. bri said the streets are getting pretty icy!

So much happening

there are so many things going on right now.
for starters it's snowing. it's been snowing since sometime in the middle of the night and it's supposed to snow thru tomorrow night. It's also super cold and super windy. Not a fun combo at all. I'm not ready for winter and snow and cold. I still remember last year, well this year really as it was still snowing in mid april. i never understood winter blues until living here.
in other news..the kids are growing. emily has decided that it's official. she is an adult. she wants to read big kid books, watch big kid tv, play on her computer, email, get a cell phone, etc. She came home yesterday from the bus crying and crying. took a bit to calm her down and figure out what was happening. She really likes a boy in her class and on her bus. (same boy) one minute he likes her then one minute he hates her and is antagonizing her. Apparently yesterday on the bus he figured out the biggest thing to do to get under her skin. Befriend her little brother. Emily lost it. Jace did an AMAZING thing, and gave the boy his things back and went to his sister instead. I was so proud of him!
Jace is doing well. He's trying to get all of his tummy things sorted out. We've started adding a few things to his diet. The other day he got some fat free frozen yogurt for dessert. he was BEYOND excited! he's doing good in school and only has 5 more of his 42 jolly phonics sounds to learn. then it's on to sight words. he's starting to sound out words and his writing is really improving!
Ben is doing super good right now! He's enjoying school and seems to be learning. His sentences are improving and we are actually able to have directed logical conversation! It's so great to get to talk to him a bit and have a conversation. He still has meltdowns at the drop of a hat, but atleast the happy times right now are getting sooo much better!
Ari is doing well. She's growing so fast. She's putting words together to make sentences, and is enjoying singing. Twinkle twinkle, and the wheels on the bus can be heard around here often! they have upped her Occupational therapy to twice a month and i think that will be great for her!
bri is good. he just got put in charge of another project at work. so that should keep him busy!
i'm ok. i'm rushing around trying to get everything done before my surgery. so many things i need to get done and organized to make the transition as smooth as possible for the kids, bri, my mom, and me. i can't believe that 3 weeks from today i will be in surgery right now. wow. i'm excited and just slightly nervous. i think i'm so busy right now trying to get ready that i don't have to much time to be nervous.
i'm hoping to get alot done this weekend. maybe even start decorating for christmas since i won't be able to help the weekend after thanksgiving when we normally would! tomorrow evening we have hired a sitter and are going out with a couple we have gotten to be good friends with! i'm super excited! it will be really nice to have a night out with other adults!

Surgery Scheduled!!!!!!!

My surgery has been scheduled for November 28!!!! I am having the full belt lipectomy. I have never been so excited in my entire life!!! My parents will come here to Iowa the Wednesday before thanksgiving and my dad will go home the saturday after. He will come back to Iowa for christmas and after the holidays my mom will go home with him. She will stay here during that time to help with me and the kids!
I'm nervous to be having such a major surgery but oh so excited!!!

Pictures after Massive Weight Loss

I've been asked many times over the last year for photos of how a body changes after massive weight loss. I have said I would post them, and have never quite had the nerve. I have finally decided to go ahead and do that. I will only post 2 pictures publicly, but will have a password protected album for those I know who have an interest in seeing them. you will need to contact me at my email for password and link to protected album. (ejbamommy@gmail.com)
I won't post the pictures directly on my blog incase someone doesn't want to see. By clicking the clink you are acknowlding that you will see an image containing some nudity (all private areas covered) and that you are seeing an image that may terrify you! :)
Oh and all of the scars that you see from right under the breast to the top of my thighs are the cysts. some are gone but have left a scar, some are still under the skin but not actively infected.
Again it is YOUR choice to click the below links. Also I ask for not hateful comments, I'm doing this to inform others. I wish I had known ALL the things that happens to the body after massive weight loss. Information is power!
Front View
Side View