New Details

I had been anxiously waiting to hear (since the hospital didn't let Heidi know until tonight) what time her surgery would be, as well as how long it is expected to take. So I thought I would post this info since I am sure many others are wondering as well. The surgery is scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. and last 4 hours and 15 min. I know well from personal experience that things don't always go as planned with surgery and schedules and everything in the hospital, so we will have to keep that in mind tomorrow. If things do go as planned, Scott won't get to talk to the surgeon until around noon. So it would be early afternoon by the time I talk to him and am able to post an update on the blog. I just wanted to let you all know so you won't be too nervous if you don't see any new posts in the morning or early afternoon. Thank you again for all your continual prayers, love and support!

Amy

Heidi's Substitute

Hello Everyone,

This is Heidi's sister. I will be updating her blog for the next little while since she won't be able to. I just wanted to let everyone know that I will update the blog as soon as possible on Thursday after the surgery, since I know everyone is anxious to know how things go. Tomorrow she has all her pre-op appointments, and surgery is sometime Thursday, but we still don't know what time. Thank you for all your love, concern, support and prayers!

Amy

Kaylie's Pottery Barn Bathroom Remodel

Ok, so here is Kaylie's bathroom BEFORE our remodel. The walls were creme, the cabinets jumped out at you since they were so dark compared to everything else and the pink formica was just not working for me. The faucet was one of those pull-on style that sprayed all over the mirror (ugh!) and Kyler couldn't wash his hands himself because he couldn't turn the faucet on. The towel ring was missing and the towel bar was bent and there were quite a few anchors/holes in the wall that needed patching.

Here is the after photo of Kaylie in her DARLING new bathroom! It's amazing what a coat of paint can do!! Scott installed a new faucet and we painted the walls a cheery yellow that matched the darling Pottery Barn towels. Yes, I splurged and got adorable towels for Kaylie that will grow with her into her teen years. I'm living in a house with mostly boys so we girls have to have some fun!!

As you can see she has her name embroidered on a towel too!! I couldn't resist. The shower curtain is linen and so adorable and we did a green rug and green baskets to pull out some of the darker tones from the towels. An old ledge that used to be in our kitchen holds some pictures above the toilet.

Here's the other view...the adorable flower countertop accessories are from Kohls and just happened to be the exact colors of the PBK towels I got her...except there isn't any yellow in them. Since there is enough yellow on the walls and the pinks and green were the same it was a perfect combination!! Kaylie just LOVES her new bathroom and so do I!! The pink formica looks fine now since it matches the lighter tones in the towels and its just cute with the new wall color. It's a dream bathroom and so fun!! We're having a fun time with our remodeling..can you tell?? =)

Brain Surgery

Well, this was a post I was hoping would never come to pass, but the time has come so now I'll update the blog with the latest. This next Thursday October 1st I'm having Brian Surgery to remove the tumor.

This decision has come after much prayer and consideration by myself and Scott. I feel at peace with my decision although I am very scared about the actual surgery, recovery, side effects, etc. I've had 3 different surgeries in the past 2 years and each one has had aspects that have been hard to deal with, but this one surely takes the cake.

Wednesday I'll go up to University of Utah Hospital and meet with the Anesthesiologist who will go over all my pre-op information. That'll be an educational appointment I'm sure. The Anesthesiologist is an important part of my medical team, no doubt.

Following that I'll go to radiology for yet another MRI to check pre-op positioning and help the Dr. in making his plan for the surgery. Thursday morning I check into the hospital and will go under the knife sometime that morning.

Surgery will involve them shaving my hair back in the surgical area--its really short there anyhow since I lost it all last fall after Gamma Knife. Then they will cut open the skin as they cut out a half-dollar sized piece of my skull--yes, yikes! After that Dr. Jensen will use a computer guided system to remove the tumor from my brain, trying desperately hard to irritate my optical nerve as little as possible.

Once the tumor is removed they'll suture around the piece of skull to hold it back into place and then I'll be sent to the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit while I come to. Knowing me and anesthesia I could be there all day!! After that point I'll be moved to the NeuroCritical Care Unit (ICU for brain patients) where they anticipate I'll spend 24 hours. The following day I'll have a follow-up MRI to make sure they were successful in removing the tumor.

Assuming I'm doing well I'll be moved then to the Neuro-Acute Care Unit which is a step down from the ICU. I'll recover there for probably 2 days and should return home Saturday evening if everything goes as planned.

Scott will be with me from Thursday through Sunday so that will be great to have his support and company as I'm recovering from this. My parents come into town next weekend and my mom will be staying with the kids and I for a week as Scott will have to go back to work on Monday. The Dr. anticipates I'll need consistent help for about 2 weeks after surgery and then it'll be another month before I'm back to myself. So it's about a 6 week ordeal.

I'm currently making my 'to do' list of all the things I want to accomplish before surgery. It's really hard to wrap my mind around this whole ordeal, but I'm grateful for the peace I've received as I've made this decision. I'm encouraged by the positives of having this tumor removed:
1-NO MORE STEROIDS! Yes!
2-No more headaches!!
3-No more seizures!
4-No more seizure medication--hence no more fatigue!
5-No more tumors in my brain-yeah!
6-We'll get a pathology on the tumor which will let us know what is really going on!
7-I can move on from this part of my life..I've known about this tumor for almost a year now and I'm ready to put it behind me

So there you have the positives and our family is trying to focus on those and meanwhile pray that things go well with the surgery. We'll keep you posted on the blog as we can. Thanks for all your support and love!!
Scott and Heidi

Decorating for Fall

In CA I had a great staircase with banisters that I would decorate for the holidays. In the fall I put these great garlands up the staircase and I just loved look. When I was unpacking my fall decors I realized that I have no banisters! =( So I got creative and used my bookcases in my living room for two of the garlands. I like how it turned out.

I plan to put another one over my front door. Then I put one on my new hutch. This is a hutch that I'm almost done filling with my nice dishes. We bought used it off KSL.com and it was less than a year old and its in great shape. I LOVE IT!

I was looking for something black and distressed that didn't look old fashioned. I also needed something that would fit in that space and not stick out too far and too long so when I found this one I was so excited!! It's perfect for our home and matches really well with the other black furniture we have!

Last night this wonderful luxury got some use!! I've had a lot of muscle pain the past 1 1/2 weeks as my steroid dosage has increased. I was so grateful to be able to get in the hot tub last night. It's a lifesaver and the timing is perfect since I really need it now. Thanks to Jim for helping Scott do the electrical this past weekend! It's a blessing to have the hot tub up and running...we are so glad we brought it with us, even though it seemed crazy at the time!! Thanks to Austin and Jason for helping with trenching and laying the foundation stones. Many hours went into this! Thanks to all!

Adorable BYU fans!

Saturday I took the plunge and bought my kids BYU shirts finally...the boys LOVE being twinners and they are excited to have BYU shirts now. Aren't they cute??

CREATE!

Last night I applied a Decor Element to the wall in my Stamping Studio. It took more time than you would think but I'm really happy with how it turned out! It's a chocolate brown color and it is an awesome definition! I just love what it says..its SO HEIDI!!

Lemongrass Kitchen is done!

Here's a flashback to a month ago when I had a shiny multi-colored ceiling with holes in it and creme walls in my kitchen!

Today I have a flat white ceiling with Lemongrass green walls that carry in from the family room. I have new pendant lights over the island that coordinate with the dark counter tops and furniture.

Here's another view so you can see how the shutters just pop now that the walls have more color. I'm loving the darker green wainscotting!! I just LOVE my kitchen walls! Yeah!

A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa Wright

Grandma and Grandpa Wright came up for a long weekend to visit us in our new home here in Centerville. We had a great time and Grandpa worked hard on projects too!! We got a lot done while he was here! Here's the kids with G and G...

Pam and Heidi...ok, so we didn't work quite as hard as Jim and Scott, we took more time to play, as you'll see in the following posts!!

The Wrights, Wrights and Mc Combs got together for family dinner...it's great living closer to them!

Scott and the boys at Cabellas...more info in the following post. They had a fun time with Dad and Grandpa this weekend!

World of Dance!!

Saturday Kaylie, Pam and I drove down to Provo to attend the World of Dance at BYU. We stopped to see Amy and the girlies first, then went to the mall and ended up at the Cougareat for Lunch. Here is Pam and Kaylie.

Then we went to the afternoon World of Dance show. It was fabulous!! There were tap dancers, ballet dancers, ballroom dancers and the international folk dance ensemble--my favorite!! It's great living so close to BYU so we can attend these neat performances.

Kaylie enjoyed shopping at the bookstore and we got BYU shirts for everyone in the family--except Scott since he already has several--so now we can get into the BYU football season here!

Here's Kaylie and Mom at Mom's Alma Mater!

We met up with the boys for dinner. They had spent the day building the swingset and then they headed up to visit Cabellas. Scott hadn't been there the last time I took the kids so he enjoyed spending a few hours there. It's a man's paradise!! After their activities and our activities we met up at Zupas for dinner...yum...that is my new favorite place!! Wish there was one closer than South Jordan!! =( We then came home to watch the BYU game, which they lost, so that was sad...but all in all it was a great weekend!!

From Dim to Bright!!

About a month ago we took down our boxy light fixture!

A few weeks later electricians installed 5 recessed can lights and boxes for 3 pendant lights. One week ago our drywaller finished the repairs and Friday our ceiling was painted....progress!!

Saturday my father in law hung these great lights!! Three creamy gold light fixtures with black rods. I LOVE THEM!

There is so much more light in our kitchen and it seems more open and spacious without the big boxy light. Next week our kitchen painting will be done and then I'll take a photo of the final look!! =)

A Swingset!!

I'm so excited to have these pieces of wood off the patio and my kids are so excited to have their swing set back!!

Scott has to build a different angled platform for the slide to go on, but otherwise TA-DA! The swing set is up and the kids can play on it..at least until it snows!! =)

Family Dinner

This weekend we were lucky enough to have Dad and Pam visiting from CA. Friday night we invited Lisa's family up to enjoy some dinner with us. The cousins had a great time playing together!! Here is Kaylie, Dallyn, Sandra and Brittney playing school together!

Cameron and Zach enjoyed all things Star Wars and Legos together!

Here's part of the group at dinner...

And the other half of the group at dinner....plus the three older kids at the island..It was great to be together. Thanks to Lisa's family for driving up from Logan for the evening!!

My New Stamping Studio!!

Well we are almost finished with my Stamping Studio in the basement so I decided to post some photos!! In CA it was called my Stamping Room but here it has been renamed to "The Stamping Studio" because it is an amazing space, too big to really be called a room!! So it has a wonderful new name!! Here is a photo of my cubby storage and my workstation.

Then the wall with my paper storage and my desk. Scott still is going to build my display shelves between the cupboard and the window.

Here is the back wall and you can see my desk, Kaylie's desk and the extra desk that Scott built on for the boys to use for crafting, homework, etc. It's nice to have room for three of us to sit at a time!

The end of that desk. Again..we need to do some small shelving on this side and figure out the under cabinet lighting situation since its different than in CA...but with the extra 6 feet of counter space and one more drawer unit--this is an even better space than in our last house. And I didn't think that was possible! Kudos to my amazing hubby who re-designed this space! I LOVE IT!!

Our Fence is Done!

I've posted lots of before and during photos from our new fence but the gates didn't get done till Saturday so I haven't posted photos of the FINAL look yet! Here is the right side fence and gate.

This is the back side of the fence on that side. This is where our swing set will be as this is our side yard!

Then the back view...it's nice to have some privacy from the house behind us. I just LOVE it!

Then on the other side of our house we have the double gate onto the basketball court. We can drive our camping trailer back there when we are preparing for a trip, etc. so that'll be nice. For now we have too much stuff on our basketball court...but we are working on getting it all taken care of!!