The pirate and the princess!

For pack meeting this month we had to dress-up. We had a Halloween party so of course there had to be costumes! Jared went as a pirate and I went as a princess. Confession~ we also had a Halloween party, but we were duds and didn't really dress up for that. I went as a nursing student (I had school clinical that day) and Jared went as a pirate, but not as decked out. Here's pictures of the princess and the pirate! **Warning: not greatest pictures of me, but they work**

...our boring week

I had a doctor appointment this week. I was happy to go because I was hurting and not sleeping most nights. Wednesday was already scheduled I had to go see where my cholesterol is since I have been on zocor for the last few months. I was happy to see that I was close to having my cholesterol in check. Right now my good cholesterol is a little low still but everything else is in check. This made me and Devin very happy. While I was there I talked with my doctor and she got me a muscle relaxer and since then I have spent 12 hours every day sleeping. Just so you know the first half the week I only slept 3 hours a night and the rest of my day was wanting to sleep. The second half of the week I slept every chance I got and was happy doing that. That means I have not had any time to do any thing exciting.

My stunning seductress claims that nothing happened with her this week, but I know better. Our darling had her first Med/Surg clinical and that was exciting for my young beautiful bride. The clinical started out very boring the happy heroin went out and got report for her patient. The patient informed her attentive aid that she had decided to go through with a surgery. The patient has diabetes and needed to have several toes amputated. That is a warning for any one who has diabetes take care of it or you will loose your toes. The divine diva was thinking to her self if my patient has surgery I will get to sit around and take a nap. Then something wonderful happened an esteemed educator told my smoking hot wife that she could observe the surgery!!! I know most of you do not want to watch toes getting severed from someones foot, but for some strange twisted reason my most cuddly spouse wanted to witness the event. I was promptly called at work to let me know the joyous news. I thought to my self what type of person did I marry. My caring companion who would not hurt a fly wanted to observe some brutal event. I mean having your toes cut off is something you hear about in gangster movies. As the day went on I was expecting to hear from my demented debutant. Unfortunately the surgery started to late and the operation went on without the stunning siren. Because of this my let down lover came home dejected but excited to see something else gruesome in her operating room rotation next week.

We are sorry for the shortness of the letter this week but nothing really happened. We hope your week is more exciting than ours was this last week.

Our weekly letter

Sorry for not reporting last week. Hope you all survived ;0) Anyway~ it has been quite an eventful last couple of weeks in our household. I will not go in chronological order... So Friday, the 16^th , Jared went in for surgery to have his kidney stone removed.. HUGE surprised. There was no kidney stone! The doctor came out and told me that there's was no kidney stone. What he did find was a calcium deposit (which kidney stones can be made of) that has embedded and gotten covered with tissue. In other words, Jared has a permanent kidney stone. The doctor does not think this is causing his pain. As the tender mercy of the Lord would have it, Jared has an appointment with his primary care physician this Wednesday (the 21^st ) for a cholesterol check. He'll talk to her about the pain he's having and see what she suggest. Jared is still having pains though. Please remain keeping him in your prayer. Thanks so much! We'll keep you all updated as we know stuff. So let's see... next important event... we put an offer on a house! It is only like two or three blocks away. We're in the same ward even. It's a 4 bedroom, 2 bath with a nice yard, and garage. We hope we get it. Yes, it is more space then we need right now, but we'll grow into it. It may be a while until we hear if we get it or not. So … we're in a waiting game, yet again. Such is life though, right? I think other than that our last couple of weeks have been getting ready for the surgery and doing normal stuff. Jared did put in A LOT of extra hours for work the first week of Oct. They had a product ship so... just name of the game. We did some baby-siting for a family in our ward and our little foster girl. That was a blast. It's always fun to be with kids. They're great. Jared also did quite a bit of helping a friend with the friend's computer homework. We were part of a couple events that were great too. One night we went with our ward. The Relief Society had sisterhood week. We went to humanitarian center and put together school kits. Jared came to help lift boxes and do whatever men do when it's mainly women. We also had the opportunity to help surprise one of our good friends, Wendy, for her birthday. Shane, Wendy's husband, threw her a surprise birthday party. I was the one who took her out so she'd be out of the house. I got the good end I think. I got a pedicure out of it. Jared helped set up the party.

Devin asked for me to take over the letter. There were some fun things that happened this week. Saturday my brother Jason and his wife came over to our house. They were doing stuff like laundry and Devin convinced Jason to cut my hair. I was of the opinion that if I was only getting a hair cut I would just pluck it out instead of cutting it. Devin then informed me that all of my hairs on my head were to be cut that day. I replied, “If I cut my facial hairs, will that be enough?” Devin insisted that the ones on the top of my head needed to be cut as well. Eventually Jason started to trim the hairs on my head. As he was doing so he accidentally noticed that he gave me the best kind of hair cut in the world. The style is described as “business in the front and party in the back”. Yes, my brother gave me a mullet. We were talking about the awesomeness of this style and Jason made it look ultra party in the back. Jason was trimming up my side burns when Devin stormed over to us and extracted the clippers from Jason's hands. For some unknown reason Devin did not like my new do. She then trimmed up my hair the way she liked it. I was not impressed with this draconian approach to hair cutting. Devin claims that my hair has far reaching effects on her. I then informed her that if my hair looked good short and not long that maybe it would look best all the way off. Devin then vetoed my new fresh idea. I ended up with a plain vanilla hair cut. Just like Devin likes. If you have hair styling suggestions for my next hair cut please respond. I want a new style but Devin is not excited about my suggestions.

I also want to point out something about my kidney stone surgery. I had been resisting Devin on going in for surgery over the past month or so. I pointed out that the pain, though annoying was not, debilitating most of the time and that I should just wait it out. I was miserable after the last surgery and wanted nothing to do with a repeat of last time. After finding out that I had surgery for no reason at all I felt vindicated at being right about not having surgery. Devin now insists that it does not matter, and that because I was right for all the wrong reasons does not make me correct. Devin is claiming that she was correct in calling the doctor and getting everything setup and that now we need to look in another direction. I do not understand how being right for the wrong reasons is wrong, but being wrong for the right reasons is right. If you can figure that out over the next week pleas let me know. I have been looking at the letter and have many questions for you to answer but I look forward to hearing your suggestions. Until next week we hope your week is less Payne-ful than ours was.

The story of the red rose

Okay, so I know I've been blogging a lot these last couple of days. I have to share this story though. Last week, when Jason and Michelle (my brother-in-law and his wife) came over they told me that there's a sign that says I get a free flower. The sign said "If you're name is Devin come in and get your free flower" or something like that. Well~ Thursday Jared and I just happen to drive by that same sign. I was surprised! A flower... just for my name? Alright... I can handle that. So we stopped and got my free flower. Cool, huh?

Pictures at Utah Lake

A few weeks ago a friend of ours took pictures of us at Utah Lake. Here are a couple of my absolute favs!

I love my Jared!

So... I know this is late... on Wednesday Jared was so sweet and surprised me. He got home early and had gotten me flowers with reeses peanut butter cups (my FAV.!) My husband is definitely the best... best for me :0)

*yes, that is a rose in the middle of sunflowers. I'll explain that in a later post.

Check out Jared's tatoo!

We had the opportunity to have our... respite child ( a child in foster care that we baby-sit) over yesterday. She had fun with our finger paints. Jared was so sweet to let her paint on both of his cheeks and his hands. She painted one of my cheeks. We also had fun painting on butcher paper that was over our table. Here are the pics! Enjoy!


Our kitchen table



Jared's right cheek



Devin's cheek



Jared's left cheek



Jared's left and with our respite child's hand

The tale of "pokes"

So... today we went to UVRMC (our local hospital) to have "pokes" (a.k.a Jared's kidney stone) removed. We arrived to at the hospital a little early. It worked out great though because I needed to go to fill stuff out in the office for my department (yes, we were at the hospital I mainly work at). We checked in at Same-Day about 08:40. Jared was in hospital gown by 9. It was 9:30ish before they got his IV in, and about 10:45 when they took him back, where I had to say good-bye. Well... the doctor came to talk to me about 11:45. This is were things took a turn. Jared's fine. He's great. The twist is... there was no "pokes"! Yeah, they went in and could not find a kidney stone. Poor Jared! All the dr. said he could figure is... there is a piece of calcium deposit (which kidney stones can be made of) that has been covered in tissue. The dr. does not think that is causing Jared's pain though. The dr. also said that CT scans (which Jared had on Wednesday- and has been hurting ever since!) can be read wrong for many reasons. The dr. also said that if Jared's pain does not get better that we can look into pain management... where they will pinpoint where exactly the pain is coming from. So we are at a total loss. I feel so horrible for Jared. He has an appointment with his primary care physician on Wednes. We'll see what she thinks. Anyway~ Jared woke up about 12:15, we left the hospital by 12:45, and he's been doing great. You wouldn't even be able to tell the man had surgery. He's amazing! I love him. I just wish we could figure out his pain. Anyway~ we'll keep you all updated. Thanks for all the prayers and support!

The week of Sept. 27

Devin and I have had a little tiff over the past month. I have had a kidney stone stuck and hurting for about 6 weeks now. I have been drinking lots and lots of water, trying to flush out that 1mm pokey thing. I have gone to the doctor and avoided everything that may be considered invasive. Devin on the other had has wanted me to go to the hospital and have a surgeon stick some stuff up my pee hole and go grab the sucker. Because of my last experience with that procedure I have been reluctant to go and do that again. I have told myself that this time it will not be as bad. This stone is very small. The last one was 8mm and was excruciating. I told Devin that I did not want to go back. Devin decided not to follow my wishes and called the doctor and set up an appointment to have the sharp pointy thing removed in 2 weeks. I have that much time to pass it on my own. Please pray for me not to need the procedure. That way I can win the argument. Remember my side of the argument is that I can pass pokes, the name of the stone, on my own. If you have any suggestions on what to do please let me know. I already drink lots of water every day and 2 glasses of orange juice, and NO I AM NOT FRUSTRATED!!!

Monday was a fun day for Devin and I. I really liked the evening because I got to spend the time with the most beautiful woman in the existence of women. That is right, I got to spend the evening with Devin. We had family home evening but this week we got to spend some real money on the activity. We normally max out the budget with a trip to the ice cream shop. Devin and I went out to a local grocery store where they were selling stuff cheap by the case and stocked up on food storage. We now have more sugar than I think we really need. We purchased 50lbs of white sugar. A case of powdered sugar and a case of brown sugar. If you need sugar and you are in the area feel free to drop on by. Other than sugar we also got lots of evaporated and sweetened condensed milk, graham crackers, and many more things that just taste good and is easy to store. One of my favorite things was tuna. Devin does not like it but it makes one of my favorite sandwiches. This may not be exciting for you but it is exciting for us. Devin is very good with money and we got everything we wanted and came in way under budget. My wife is not only good looking but good at budgeting.

Saturday was an exciting day. Well, the day was not exciting for me. I spent 16 hours at work and was very frustrated. My main break came at lunch time when I went to the hospital and had lunch with Devin. At the time I was very happy sitting next to Devin. I had a meatball sandwich and that made my life even better. At the same time Devin's sister, Melissa, was on her way past cloud 9 and headed out of the universe with excitement. First Melissa tried to text Devin a picture because what conveys happiness more than showing what is making you happy. Devin did not respond because her phone was in her bag. Darn work expecting you to put things to the side while you do what they pay you to do. At this stage Melissa's joy was overflowing and she was looking for a place to store the joy so she tried to call Devin. Unfortunately the man was still keeping Devin down and Devin still did not have her phone. At this point, to Melissa, it probably looked like there was a conspiracy to keep the flood of happiness contained. Melissa made her third attempt to talk to her sister by making a huge bet, she tried to call Devin using my phone. Lucky for Melissa I happened to be with Devin on her 30 minute lunch break at the time. The bad part was that I thought it was work calling and I was reaching down to silence the phone. I mean work could wait 10 minutes and I was going back right after lunch. Then I noticed something strange- Melissa's name was on the phone. I answered a little confused. There was obviously a hyperventilating woman on the other end asking for Devin but it did not sound like Melissa. I reluctantly handed Devin the phone and by the scream of joy from both girls I soon learned that just a little earlier Justin had proposed to Melissa. The text message has a picture of the ring which looks lovely. We are excited for Justin and Melissa and look forward to their wedding. We hope your week is as joy filled as Melissa and Justin's!

Oct. 16

Oct. 16, so in two weeks will be a bitter, sweet day for us! Jared will get the kidney stone removed on that day. Probably in the morning. We're excited to finally have the stone removed, but it's no fun going into surgery. Poor man! Feel bad for him. Anyway~ we'll keep you all updated!