CRAZY, CRAZY DECEMBER - sorry, VERY long!

December is FINALLY over!

Wow, last month was one of extremes – extreme excitement, extreme heartache, extreme mourning and sadness, extreme busyness, extreme packing, extreme stress, extreme worry, extreme relief and extreme happiness. We are so excited to finally be starting the New Year and are excited for the changes and experiences ahead of us this year!

Here is a quick-ish run-down of the past month that has been BEYOND crazy and busy and out-of-control for us! Some day’s recountings are less quick-ish than others, but that’s how it goes. Sorry! J

Wed - December 2^nd – Zeus flew in and we went to our first doctor visit and ultrasound. HOORAY! The plan was for him to stay for the month and help pack up my house and school and help with wedding plans. We were excited for the doctor appointment and at the chance to spend so much time together. Unfortunately, Zeus’s mom’s health had declined drastically in the weeks prior and so we were unsure of how things would transpire. So, that was the plan, but as we know, plans don’t always work out as anticipated.

Doctor visit - We were pretty disappointed with the lack of thoroughness from the doctor. He kind of blew us off when we told him that we were moving out of state soon, but at least we got to see our little one’s heartbeat just a beating away and to see them kicking and moving all over the place! We got a less-than-stellar picture out of it, but it was SO cool to see our little one moving around, to know that things were progressing and to have first-hand knowledge and proof that there really actually WAS a little baby growing in there!

First ultrasound as posted previously - head on the left, body on the right.

Sat - December 5^th – We got the sad news that Zeus’s mom wasn’t doing good and for him to get home as soon as possible. The wedding date and printing of announcements were put on hold until we could find out more. Luckily we were able to get him a buddy pass out that same night – within an hour we got the ticket, got him packed and rushed to the airport to drop him off for his flight. I remember hugging him at the curb and him rushing off, and then getting back in the car and bursting into tears for the drive home. In the rush there was no time to think about the ramification of things until he was dropped off and on his way. It was hard to see him leave and even harder to not be able to go with him and be with him and such a hard time. It was terribly rushed and traumatic way to cut short the trip, but we were grateful to have gotten him out that same day. Zeus’s sweet mom passed away later that night.

Mon thru Wed - December 7^th and 8^th – I worked all day both days and then stayed late to get sub plans ready so that I could fly out right after work on the 9^th. The days were a blur of sadness and longing to be with my sweet man as we grieved the loss of his mom. I got in late and exhausted on the 9^th, but it was so nice to be in his arms again, even though the circumstances were so hard.

Thurs - December 10^th – Nearly all afternoon and night spent at the viewing for Zeus’s mom Lina – a very emotional time for everyone.

Fri - December 11^th – Another sad day – last family viewing, funeral, and burial of Lina Moreno Olague and a dinner with family and friends.

Sat - December 12^th – Zeus dropped me off at the airport and I was supposed to fly out that morning. I was flying standby, and was glad to be able to get on one of the last two seats on the plane. Unfortunately/fortunately they over-fueled the plane and apparently when that happens they don’t take fuel out, they take passengers out - the standby passengers and some of the regular passenger luggage had to get off. We didn’t know at first that they would have people get off, and so I ran to the bathroom really quick before we were to take off. I was washing my hands when they called for “a Mr. Austin” and one other passenger’s name from the flight to raise their hand. I figured they were calling me and as they restated my name I tried to open the door, but was nervous and stressed and they probably called my name 3 or 4 times before I was able to pause long enough to take a deep breath and read the sign on the door that said to “push” instead of “pull.” I stuck my head out and waved at the flight attendant at the front and hurried back up to the front of the plane, only to be told we had to get off. It was a bummer, but I was able to stay until that evening which was a blessing even though Zeus had to come back to the airport to pick me up again.

Sun - December 13^th – First day home, was under a lot of stress and almost called off the wedding because of all that had gone on and because we’d gotten nothing done on the wedding and everything was just too overwhelming. Later that night we decided to go ahead with the wedding, but to change the date from Monday the 21^st to Saturday the 26^th to give us the week of Christmas break to get everything organized.

Mon – December 14^th – Finally sent in the order to print out our wedding announcements.

Wed - December 16^th – Zeus flew back in and we went to my parent’s house to help my sister Tiffany with her hair and makeup for a wedding that she was a bride’s maid in. We got her all beautiful and I headed out the door in a rush to get to a bridal shower with my friends out in Syracuse, UT. When I turned to get into the car, the icy/slushy mess that covered the driveway shifted and I twisted my ankle really bad (I could feel bone crushing and sliding against bone) and fell straight down hard on my rear end into the slush. The extreme pain had me bursting into sobs immediately as everyone hurried over to see if I was okay. I was able to get up, but my ankle started to swell immediately and I was in a lot of pain and couldn’t stop crying. Agk! Since my car is a stick shift and I’d twisted my clutch ankle, Zeus decided to drive me to the shower. My mom ran into the house for an ace bandage and ice pack for the road. All the way there I was in horrible pain and could hardly stop crying and Zeus tried to calm me down. I took two Tylenol and luckily by the time we got there the pain was bearable.

The shower was great fun and a ton of my great girlfriends showed up. I feel SO lucky to have such great friends/women in my life!!! At the shower, my friend Mary told me that she’d fallen when she was pregnant and they’d had her go into the doctor to monitor the baby to make sure that everything was okay. After the shower I told Zeus about it and we decided to call the nurse line that goes with my insurance to see what they advised. They said that since the baby was still to small to feel move to make sure everything was okay, that they recommended that I go into an insticare. We called all around but they were all closed because it was after 10 pm, so we ended up going into the emergency room.

We ended up spending most of the evening in the ER and it was really hard for Zeus to be there in the hospital with me after having just spent so much time in the same kind of environment with his mom. It was rough. In the ER they took blood, x-rayed my ankle and set us up for an ultrasound. During the ultrasound they kept the screen turned away from me so that I couldn’t see what was going on and it freaked me out. They did the ultrasound and said there was a heartbeat and that the baby looked fine, but that they wanted to do an internal ultrasound just to make sure everything was okay. They did that and they kept looking around and looking around but wouldn’t say anything! I asked again if everything was okay with the baby and they said yes, but wouldn’t say anything else.

When we got back to the ER bed, they came and took MORE blood and then said they were going to start a saline IV, but didn’t say why they were doing any of this. After a while of being in there and not hearing anything, I had Zeus go ask if I could have a drink or some ice to suck on because I was so thirsty. They asked the doctor and then told him that I couldn’t have anything to eat or drink right now because they weren’t sure if they were going to be sending me upstairs for surgery or if they were going to send me home. WHAT?!?!? Needless to say, we were both very upset by that news. They finally came in and told us that they’d found a mass near my uterus, but were unsure at that time what it was. The doctor over the ER said that wasn’t his specialty and that he’d never seen anything like it. They ended up sending me home and wanted me to go into the doctor the next morning. I asked him if it was something that I could wait to do until after work, and he said no, and that he was giving me a note excusing me from work for the next two days. We went home around 1:30 am, physically and emotionally exhausted.

Tues - December 17^th – Spent the whole day running around from doctor to doctor and a whole lot of stressing in the quick moments between. Woke up early to call and get a doctor appointment. Went from the regular doctor who said I’d need surgery and that they’d probably give me a spinal and go in laproscopically to remove the growth, to an OBGYN specialist who said it wasn’t a 3 cm mass, but 5 ½ INCH mass. He said that because of its size and location, they would have to actually put me completely under and do a vertical incision like the old time c-sections to remove the cyst. He said that there was a SMALL chance of miscarriage, but that it was good that I was beginning my second trimester because that’s when they typically wait to do surgery when expectant mothers need surgery. He also said that I may or may not lose an ovary, but that they’d see when they got in there. He didn’t have the info from the ER yet, but should be getting it later that day. The earliest he could do surgery was the following Tuesday, it would be a three week recovery period, and did we want to schedule it for then? We told him we were supposed to get married that Saturday, and could we wait until after the wedding. He said that it could increase the risk, but that sure, we could wait until after the wedding. He said he definitely would not recommend waiting as long as a month because of the risks and possible complications. As we left the office I started tearing up, and Zeus stopped me before we exited the doors to the waiting room to hug me and tell me that everything was going to be okay. He is such a sweetie and I love him SO much!

I was able to compose myself on the way to the car, but after we got in the car to head home, I called my mom and promptly burst into tears as I told her what had happened at the doctor visits and what they had recommended. Luckily my mom is a nurse and recommended we get a second opinion. My mom called her nurse friends while I called my insurance to get permission to get a second opinion. (The lady I talked to was fabulous and so kind and understanding. I later got a card of support and encouragement in the mail that wasn’t signed and had no return address. I am sure it was from the sweet lady I talked to.) I was able to get permission and my mom got me the name of a doctor down in Salt Lake who came highly recommended by many of her OB nurse friends. We called the doctor’s office and left a message with the nurse about the situation and surgery recommendation and the desire for a second opinion. She called us back and was able to squeeze us in, so we hopped in the car and headed to our third doctor’s appointment of the day.

This doctor was the only one to do an ultrasound first hand and he immediately said that to him it looked like a fibroid tumor and that he’d be highly surprised if it wasn’t. He said that it was sitting on top of my uterus and to the side kind of like a stacked snowman, and that the worst possible thing you could do in that situation was operate. He said that lots of women have them, though they USUALLY didn’t get this large. He said that I should be able to have a normal pregnancy and delivery, but I would just always seem larger than I was because of how big the fibroid was. We were able to see the baby and got another ultrasound picture of our little one. The doctor said that I could sign a release of records from the ER visit so that he could take a look at what they THOUGHT they were looking at, but that he was pretty confident that it was a fibroid. We signed the release for records and were told to check back with him the following Monday since it was already the end of the day on Thursday. We went home extremely relieved, but still a bit worried about how things would turn out. We got another picture of our little one at this visit and were surprised at how much our little bean has grown in a few short weeks!

Proud mama and her little one!

(the photo is reversed because I took it with my cell phone)

Close up of the ultrasound picture.

The spine is along the top on the left, and the head is facing down on the right.

We decided to go ahead with the wedding on the 26^th. Drove clear out to Hooper to get Zeus fitted for a tux for the wedding.

Fri - December 18^th – Bittersweet day – last day of school before the holiday break and last day with my little class all to myself, and a wedding shower with the faculty and staff at my school. I broke the news that I was leaving - I told my students that after Zeus and I got married, that Zeus was taking me to Texas to live with him and that they’d be getting a new teacher. It killed me to make it sound all cool and exciting and like some kind of new adventure for them, but I knew I had to keep it upbeat or we’d all start crying. I wanted them to see it as a positive change and to make it seem like a grand new adventure. It was a rough day, but we kept it busy and it went too fast to have time to be sad or melancholy about it. I sent a letter home with them explaining to the parents that I was leaving and why and to reassure them about the transition and the new teacher.

After school we had the shower. It was the last day before the break and lots of people had plans, but I was touched by how many people showed up. I love my job – the place I work, the people I work with, and my great little class who has grown so much and gotten to be such smarties!

Sat - December 19^th – Went shopping for envelopes for the wedding announcements we’d gotten printed up. Couldn’t find decent envelopes but finally realized they’d fit in Christmas card envelopes, and since “Tis the Season”, we decided to buy some and spent the afternoon madly addressing envelopes to get them out before the 5 pm pickup. Barely got them finished up and dropped off in time to get them out that day! I don’t remember Sunday.

Mon - December 21^st – I woke up with the flu – throwing up and trips to the bathroom all day long. I couldn’t keep anything down and was horribly miserable all day long. Zeus was so sweet to me when I was sick. He got me wet washrags and wipe my face when I’d break out in a cold sweat while vomiting. At one point he gathered up my hair and held it back out of my way as I was throwing up and even put it in a ponytail to hold it back. Such a trooper and such a sweetie – he even disposed of the barf container contents. Gag! I got me a good one! Man, do I love him!!! I couldn’t sleep because I felt too miserable, so it was the longest day ever! It also didn’t help that we’d tried calling the doctor to find out about the growth in my stomach, and waited all day to hear back from him. While we were waiting, the other doctor called to see if we still wanted to schedule surgery the next day, and we told him we were going to hold off and get married first after all. When I told him I’d gotten the flu and had been throwing up all day long, he said maybe it was a sign and I wasn’t supposed to have surgery yet. Schnikeys! At the end of the day we finally heard back from the doctor, but the reports hadn’t come in from the ER yet so we had to wait until the next day after all. Argh!!!

Tues - December 22^nd – Day two of the flu was still rough, but was able to keep down two toasts by the end of the day. Also, we found out that the growth in my abdomen was actually a fibroid and we could continue with the pregnancy without surgery. The only complications could be if the fibroid outgrows its blood supply and starts dying. When I heard that I was worried about it being the dead rotting mass inside of me. The doctor said that it was harmless but could be very painful to me if that were to happen. The other problem could be if the placenta migrated up to where the fibroid was and they competed for blood supply. He said they’d monitor it, but that it was unlikely to happen. We were so relieved!

Wed - December 23^rd – Went to COSTCO to order cakes, felt weak and horrible so got pushed around in a wheelchair because it took too much out of me to walk. I had to keep reminding my focused mother to slow down because the motion of the wheelchair gave me motion sickness unless she went really really slow. After that I decided to be dropped off at home and take a nap while Zeus went with my mom and Deena (my future sister-in-law – my brother Michael’s fiancé) to run wedding errands. That night we went to my parent’s house for dinner and I ate (and held down) my first real meal. My dad got the keys to the church and since I was feeling a little better, we decided to go over to the church at 10 o’clock at night and do some set up so that we could enjoy Christmas eve without the stress and worry. We went and got things set up and were so glad that we did because it helped TONS, even if we didn’t get home until after midnight!

Thurs - December 24^th – Zeus and I did some last minute wedding and Christmas shopping, packed up overnight bags and headed to my parents’ house to wrap gifts and spent Christmas Eve with the family. I think this was the same day that I had Zeus drop me off at a photo shop so that I could create a photo book to use as our guest sign in book for the wedding. Things were so busy and crazy that it’s all kind of a blur though! It ended up taking FOREVER because since I wasn’t sure of their layouts, I had a TON of pictures that I’d brought just in case I needed them. Every time I’d accidently move or delete a picture, I’d have to go through ALL of the pictures to find the one I wanted again. It probably took 3-4 hours, but it turned out great (besides the few typo’s that I missed – darn it!). I could do it a lot faster now that I know how it works, but it was worth it.

Fri - December 25^th – Had a nice relaxing Christmas morning with the family and talked on the phone with siblings who weren’t able to make it. Michael and I spent most of the afternoon and evening compiling pictures and setting them to music for the wedding video. Took hours and hours and hours, but I was really pleased with the way it turned out. I’ll try and find a way to post it on the blog, or maybe post it on youtube and have a link on the blog to it for those of you who’d like to see it.

Sat - December 26^th – Wedding day! Spent the day running around (not nearly as fast and as furiously as my family did – bless their hearts and thank you so much for everything!!!) and then were able to get married. The ceremony started about 15 minutes late because we thought our clothes were at the church, but they were at the house so we were changing and finishing up last minute. Luckily my FABULOUS friends jumped right in and helped finish things up for us! Zeus and I really enjoyed the evening and were thrilled to finally be getting married! Zeus surprised me with a gorgeous band to add to my engagement ring. It was a fun surprise and the rings look great together. When I first got my engagement ring, I didn’t think I could love it any more than I already did! I was wrong – I love it even MORE now!!!

Thanks to Zeus’s good friend Robert who hooked us up, we were able to get a room in at the Marriott downtown for two nights that was gorgeous and overlooked the Galavant center and the skating rink and lights.

So pretty!

It was so nice to be able to get away for a few days, even if it wasn’t too far from home! Spent a day and a half taking a break from the hustle and bustle and running and stress to go out to lunch and movies and dinner and just enjoy each other’s company. I still can’t get over referring to Zeus as my husband and of hearing him refer to me as his wife!

Mon - December 29^th – Back to the hard, cold reality of life and a day spent in my classroom packing and boxing things up. Thanks to Kevin and Tiffany and my mom, who helped Zeus and I pack up so much!

Tues - December 30^st – Kevin and Tiffany came over and spent most of the day packing up the house with Zeus and I. Thanks so much for your help again – you guys are troopers!

Wed - December 31^st – Zeus and I got all dressed up and went into Target to get some portraits of us done in our wedding gear. My mom had heard that they do an awesome job and we were really happy with how they turned out. Here are some cell phone picture copies of them – the real life ones look even better! We got more shots that these, but these are some of the ones of us together. I took them in my car, so forgive the glare and horrible backdrop. :)

Don’t remember exactly what we did the next two days, probably more endless packing. Have I mentioned my great level of hatred with anything to do with packing now?!?!?

GOOD-BYE CRAZY DECEMBER AND HELLO 2010!

We are SO looking forward to settling down, settling in, enjoying our marriage
and getting ready for our baby to arrive at the end of June!

Sat - January 2^nd – We rented a U-Haul to move all the boxes from my school to my house. It took most of the morning. Thanks again to my great family that came and helped us out – mom, dad and Kevin, we really really appreciated all your help – there’s no way we could have done it alone! My mom and I stayed and straightened up the classroom so that things would be ready for Monday when the kids came back while my dad, Kevin and Zeus drove the truck back to the house to unload. My mom and I made it back to the house in time for Zeus to shower and for us to rush him to the airport to catch his flight home for work on Monday. That night Zeus called from the airport to let me know he’d gotten home safely and said, “Happy one week anniversary.” It was such a bummer to have to be apart so soon after getting married, but we both had things that needed to get done. We are SO looking forward to finally being able to live in the same state and under the same roof!