Making Memories

When we were dealing with all of Dallin’s fun appendix stuff I got a message from a fellow BYU MBA spouse telling me that when they are dealing or going through hard times they joke they are making memories.

Well we are making memories out here!  

* Dallin’s appendix

* Parking ticket – which I fought and won!

* Our car getting broken into – luckily nothing to big was stolen.

* Hadlee dropping my phone and cracking my screen.

But along with the tough or frustration times we have had some great times. We have had the opportunity to do/see some interesting and incredible things.

Como Zoo – A free zoo with tons of animals that Hadlee loved.

Laurel Park – tons of squirrels (3 minutes walk from our apartment) 

Movie – How to Train your Dragon 2 (At the first ever mall in America)

Twins Baseball game – Target got tickets for all the MBA interns and had a few extra so Hadlee and I got to tag along. Hadlee feel asleep after the 5 inning. 

Mall of America – my home away from home!

Pride week in Minneapolis - I didn't take a lot of pictures but I did see a lot of interesting stuff. 

Lake Calhoun – just walked about it

Wild Rumpus Bookstore – they had 3 cats, a chicken, 2 rats, birds and frets around the store.

Can you spy the cat in this picture? 

Walking down to the Mississippi River

Library – they have an awesome children section 

Other random pictures :)

Rainy days

Hadlee's favorite spot in the apartment

She has to take her baby doll everywhere. 

Little mommy 

Hadlee's new friend at church. 

Who need an appendix anyways?

We have had a great time exploring Minneapolis – so much fun Dallin even wanted to check out the ER.  Last week (Monday, June 23) Dallin went to a taste testing event that Target invited the MBA interns to – and Dallin had a lot of different foods. He got home around 7 pm and was already feeling nauseous. He started throwing up about 8:30 pm – I thought I was food poisoning and would pass in 24 hours. Dallin was complaining his stomach really hurt, again I just thought it was from him throwing up. Little did we know it was really his appendix.

At 9:00 pm he was throwing up every 15 minutes and knew something just wasn’t right so we googled some urgent care clinics, hospitals, and even texted some members of the ward to figure out where to go.  All the urgent care clinics were closed so are only choose was going to the nearest ER.

We ended up at Hennepin County Medical Center - which is an inter-city hospital. I dropped Dallin off to get check in while I tried to figure out where to park.  At this point Dallin is still throwing up, he is now doubled over in pain, pale and looks like he is going to pass out. We over heard someone else saying they had already waiting 4 hours to be seen. I didn’t know how we were going to wait that long with Dallin being so sick and Hadlee already tried. A lot of prayers were answered that night – we only needed up waiting 30 minutes before they brought Dallin back. They started an IV and got him started on anti-nauseous and pain medications.

The medications helped a little but he was still in a lot of pain. The doctor came back in and started pushing on his stomach to see if Dallin was having more pain in one area than another. As soon as she pushed on his appendix he felt a crazy amount of pain (Dallin said it was the most pain he has ever felt – this from the guy who just had hip surgery) . The doctor ordered a CT scan we just wanted to wait for the results.  Hadlee did so good – she watched some shows, played some games and finally feel asleep in her stroller.

11:45 pm - Hadlee sleeping in her stroller, Dallin in and out of sleeping, and me praying it was just food poisoning. The doctor came in to tell us Dallin had appendicitis and needed surgery right away. I lost it  – here we are in a completely new place, no family around, and completed exhausted.  12:30 am Dallin was getting prepped for surgery but one of his labs came back abnormal he had to do additional testing and an Ultrasound.   

2:30 am – All the testing was done and Dallin was in pre-op. Hadlee woke up screaming and won’t claim down – lucky for us pre-op was empty so no one cared that Hadlee was freaking out. They took Dallin back at 2:50 am and took us to the waiting room.

I finally got Hadlee back to sleep in her stroller. It was the longest hour and half – and I felt so alone.

Surgery went good, with no issues. Dallin would be spending the night and most of the day in the hospital. Once I saw Dallin in recovery and knew he was ok I decided to head back to our apartment.

5:15 am I finally crawled into bed – hopping to get a few hours of sleep before Hadlee woke up and we heading back to the hospital. Hadlee work up at 5:30 am so she slept with me in my bed till about 7:20 am.

I woke up to a few missed calls from family, five text messages from family and some member of the ward. I went from feeling really alone to feeling so blessed to have so many people all over praying for us. The ward jumped into action, offering meal and help with Hadlee. We even had two of our neighbors came and gave Dallin a blessing.

Dallin understandable was worried about missing work – he actually sent an email right before he went into surgery. Dallin’s two bosses even came to the hospital to make sure he was ok and even to see if I needed anything. They told Dallin not to worry about work this week and just get feeling better.

Throughout the day we continue to get calls from the ward checking on us and see how they could serve us. Again prayers were answered and I was reminded again I’m never alone. I’m so grateful for my amazing family, friends and ward members. 

Before surgery 

An awesome nurse gave Hadlee some ice cream while we waiting for Dallin to be released. 

The Move.

Two posts in one day - look at me go!

Saturday, June 14 we got to move into our apartment (it is an extent stay hotel) for the summer. We are staying downtown Minneapolis on the 19^th floor or a 21 story building. We have more room than I thought we would and an amazing view of downtown. Hadlee loves running around exploring her new digs. We have a swimming pool, fitness center and best of all they come clean our apartment every other week.  I could totally get use to this!

Due to the lack of space in our car we couldn't fit Hadlee’s stroller – so our first matter of business was to buy a cheap umbrella stroller. We walked to Target (which is like 8 minutes away – I’ll be there all the time) and got a stroller. Got some basic food needs, assembled the stroller in the store and walked home.

So far we are enjoying our time getting settled it. We are excited for our adventures this summer.

Every night Dallin will sing a song (his mom sang to him) to Hadlee before putting her down for the night. I finally got a picture of it!!

Sunset from our bedroom window. 

We're Still Here

A miscarriage, a baby, starting the MBA program at BYU, another shoulder surgery, bought a house, a hip surgery and moved to Minneapolis for the summer are just a few things that happened since the last time I posted. I know it has been a while, but I thought I was blog about our summer adventures while here in Minneapolis - one to remember all the fun things we did and two for our family and friends who want to know.

The Drive.

We heading out Thursday, June 12 for our long 19 hour drive. We packed as much as we could fit into our little compact car, but still couldn't fit everything. :)  Our first stop was Cowboy Donuts in Rock Spring, WY. One of Dallin's buddy from the MBA program started this company and we had to see what it was all about. Not sure what Hadlee loved more the donuts holes or running around.  

The only other stops we made were quick stops for food or to fill out with gas. Hadlee did AWESOME in the car! She only slept for about an hour but was happy the whole time. Dallin and I started playing a game during the drive – counting the dead animals on the side of the road – we lost count there were so many.  We really wanted to visit Mount Rushmore National Park before heading to our hotel in Rapid City. We started heading toward Mt. Rushmore around dusk, I just got done saying we should be careful and keep are our eyes out for deer, when a deer jumped in front of our car. Dallin was super claim in the situation and slammed on the breaks missing the deer by inches. My heart was racing for the next 20 minutes. Once we got to Mount Rushmore we took our time taking pictures and letting Hadlee run. As we left the park we saw six deer on the side of the road eating, so of course we had to stop and get a picture.  

Friday the 13 we finished our drive to Minneapolis. It was pretty uneventful – Hadlee had another great day in the car. Our apartment wasn't ready to move into till Saturday so we spent the night in a hotel. Hadlee enjoyed getting her energy out by going swimming then cuddled up next to Dallin to watch some Baby Einstein. 

Dallin as a Lefty

On Thursday Dallin got surgery on his right shoulder from an injury he has had for THREE years. He was finally sick of the pain/weakness, and with the baby coming we decided to finally get it taken care of. I’e never had to sit and wait while anyone was having surgery, but to tell you the truth I hated it. The hour and half I wasn’t allowed to be with him felt like hours and hours that dragged on. After the surgery was over and Dallin had come to, Doctor Kimball came into his recovery room and said “well, you weren’y lying”, and that he was able to see the labral tear and he was able to fix it with four anchors. I didn’t mind waiting once Dallin came into recovery and I got to watch him come to. A few of my favorite things he said: • I love BYU football, and that is normal and healthy • I’m I going to be able to walk again? • I love you, you are so pretty! You’re pregnant right? • Am I going to have super human strength in my right arm? • They should have just injected me with the same stuff as Wolverine because I would have healed in like 30 minutes. But then I might accidentally kill people. • I can open my left eye . . . wait, AND my right eye! Dallin is one tough guy and has been doing so good. He is very independent and I try to help him but he likes doing everything he can, even with a gimp arm. His new favorite place in our house is our new recliner – we bought it for me and the baby, but he’s definitely taken advantage. :) The Before

The After