Mackey Family

Parker participated in his elementary annual Christmas program this past weekend. Each grade performed 2 songs. It was cute, but very loud (the audience was louder than the performance.) Parker loves to sing and has been practicing for weeks around the house. Parker is the 4th one from the left on the top row. This was the finale where they had the whole school sing. I almost got him to look at me. Later that night we went over to see the lights near the Layton city offices. They decorate 100's of figures and have 1000's of lights. The kids loved it. Parker's favorite was the spider and spider web. Snake Moose Hannah's favorite was the Mermaid (Ariel is what she called it.) Parker and Hannah. (I swear one of these days I WILL get a picture of both of them looking at the camera & smiling)

So as I stated in my last post we have had some major plumbing issues. I guess one of the joys of having an older home is that things have to be fixed and brought up to date. Over the last months we have had our sewer back up into our laundry room a couple of times. Luckily when it happened the first few times we were there and could keep it from getting onto the carpet in our basement. If we put the liquid plumber foaming snake in, it would fix it and we were good for about a week or so. So last Sunday it did it again but this time it backed up enough to get the perimeter of our carpet wet. So Travis went to get the liquid plumber but this time it didn't work. So Monday we called a rotor rooter company and they came out to do their thing. The man then sent in a camera to have a look at our pipes and said that we have orange burg pipes. Orange burg pipe is actually a kind of tar paper that's rolled up about 10 layers thick to create a tube. It was used as the sewer pipe that ru...

8 Shows I Watch: 1. The Amazing Race 2. Prison Break 3. Hells Kitchen 4. Law & Order (any of them, SVU, CI) 5. Survivor 6. The Office 7. Without a Trace 8. The Biggest Loser 8 Restaurants That I Like To Eat At: 1. Olive Garden 2. Wendy's 3. Applebee's 4. Subway 5. Chili's 6. Garcia's 7. Red Robin 8. Rumbi 8 Things I Did Today: 1. Took Parker to school 2. Fed Hannah Breakfast 3. Posted this blog. 4. Ate breakfast 5. took medicine (I have an awful cold) 6. Called a plumber (We are having some major plumbing issues) 7. Pick up Kindergarten carpool (In 1 Hr) 8. Fed the Dog 8 Things I Am Looking Forward To: 1. Getting rid of this cold 2. Having our plumbing problems fixed 3. Christmas 4. Feeling better 5. lunch with some girl friends tomorrow 6. 10 yr Anniversary in May 7. Watching my kids grow & Learn 8. Summer vacation next year 8 Things On My Wish List: 1. Money 2. Good health 3. Being debt free 4. Getting a new car 5. Continued employment for Travis 6. Fun summer...

Thanks Samantha for the tag! I can honestly say I've never been tagged, but I always enjoy reading what others have written about themselves. So here goes nothing 10 Years ago I. . . . 1. Was dating Travis (Thanksgiving day 10 yrs ago was the day Travis asked my parents if he could marry me) 2. Was waiting for Travis is pop the question. 3. Was working full time 4. Attending SLCC. 5. Living with a crazy roommate. 5 Things on Today's "To Do" List: 1. Cut my coupons. (I'm a little obsessed, I get 5 copies of the Sunday paper each week just for the coupons) 2. De-Junk Parker's room, We have to get ready for Christmas. 3. Pick up Kindergarten carpool 4. Make dinner. 5. Do laundry. 5 Snacks I Enjoy: 1. Popcorn (home style by pop secret) 2. Grapes 3. Wheat thins 4. Diet Pepsi 5. String Cheese 5 Things I would do if I were a Millionaire: 1. Save for retirement, kids college, etc. 2. Buy my dream house. 3. Give to charity. 4. Help out family. 5. Go back to school. 5...

Well I guess I should update and let everyone know how life is going. The Radio-Active Iodine(RAI) was given to me on Tuesday Nov 11th and I stayed in my mom's basement bedroom for 6 long days & 5 long nights. Some would think that alone time would be nice and fun, but I'm kind of a needy person (at least I can admit it) and like to have my husband around and I totally missed my kids. Travis came and saw me Tuesday-Thursday after work. He had to stay 7 ft away from me. Then he went and got the kids on Friday night and I didn't get to see him or the kids until I finally came home late Sunday night. You learn a lot of things about yourself when you can't really be around anyone else. I must say I got very good at coloring, I decided I don't really like crossword puzzles, watched all the sappy chick flicks I could handle, read many magazines/books, and prayed alot. I know that I grew as a person during that week and have tried to apply some of the lessons ...

Well since I wasn't home this weekend to celebrate Parker's Birthday I thought it would be fun to reminisce about when Parker was born. November 14th 2002 started much like every other day. I was 3 days overdue and so wanted this to be the day that I would have my baby. I had a midweek RS activity at the church that day and went and didn't stop all day. Someones kid would spill and I was the one to hurry and clean it up. I got home that afternoon around 1 or 2 pm & thought I was exhausted so I would lay down for a nap. After about 20 minutes I realized I wasn't going to sleep and got up. I got online paid all the bills that were due later that month, went to the store to buy last minute things & got home around 5:30 when Travis came home. I was exhausted & hungry. Travis decided we should go get some dinner. I went in to go to the bathroom before we were gonna leave. I was walking back from the bathroom when my water broke in the hallway of our apartment at ...

Well I guess I should update what is going on. I will be going in for a dose of Radio-Active Iodine tomorrow afternoon. Then I will have to stay in isolation (my mom's basement) for 1 week. That is going to be the toughest part. I have to stay 6-10 ft away from people for 5-7 days. My kids will be going up to Pocatello to stay with Travis's Brother Robert & his family. Anyways I am so behind on posting and I will catch up someday.

So this past Saturday was Parker's elementary school's Halloween carnival. Since this whole school thing is new to us we didn't know that the kids were supposed to come dressed in their costumes. We found out 2 days before but the bad part is that I've kind of had a crazy month & I couldn't find a Halloween costume for Parker. He wanted to be a Capt. Jack Pirate (he was very specific this year.) So I ordered the costume online & it didn't get here until this week. So I had to make up a costume last Saturday for the carnival. He was a Vampire/Dracula and wasn't loving it. Here's our Cute little Hannah Pirate & Scary Vampire. Posing in front of our house. We got the Capt. Jack costume this week so that's what he will be tomorrow for Halloween. I'll post pic's of all of us. We are all being pirates this year. (that is if I can convince Travis to join in on the fun, he's being a poor sport.)

So the other day I couldn't figure out what Parker was doing. He was being way to quiet for way to long. I found him in the living room with about 50 Twisty-ties and he said he was making a mask. Parker working so intently. This mask of "twisty-ties" went all the way around his head, & looked kind of like glasses. He thought it was quite neat.

Today I went with Hannah and her preschool class on a field trip to a dairy farm. It was more fun than I thought it would be. It was very STINKY, but it was amazing to see all the cows at their varying ages, 1day old to 12yrs old. The new little baby cows were so cute. If you put your hand near them they would suck on it like a binkie, it felt weird but of course I had to try it. Hannah wouldn't do it though, but she loved all the cows. Amber & Hannah Hannah looking at all the cows., These were some of the baby cows. All the kids. (This is 2 neighborhood preschool groups combined.) The milking room. Hannah loved to pet the cows.

Well here is a brief update since surgery. I went in on Friday at 8:00am & they wheeled my away to surgery at about 9am. Travis didn't hear anything till a little after 12:00. Surgery went well & I was admitted to the hospital to keep watch on my calcium levels. I was in quite a bit of pain this day & was loving the pain meds & slept a lot. Saturday was a better day, I was still in a lot of pain but was able to get up and walk around, shower and feel somewhat better, but still had low calcium levels. Sunday I was hoping to be told I could go home but my calcium levels still were too low. I have to share a few pics that were taken Sunday. !!WARNING!! they are kind of yucky!! This shows the incision/Drain that was in my neck. Here is a closer view. (it really hurt) I had to throw in this pic that Travis took as he left our house Sunday morning to come up to the hospital. Yes we had the hugest snowstorm on OCTOBER 12 th . So by Sunday night my calcium levels weren...

So I am getting really nervous for my surgery tomorrow. I haven't been sleeping very well this past week. Those that know me know that I am not a morning person & I love my sleep. Well I've been up since 5:30 this morning. So far I've changed my blog background 5-6 times and looked at anyone & everyone's blogs. I've looked at blogs of people that I don't even know. So I find out this afternoon what time my surgery will be. Now the key is to keep myself busy until tomorrow. I have a ton of things to do today so hopefully I will be successful at forgetting about being nervous. Well wish me luck! I'll update when I get home from the hospital, which could be as late as next Tuesday or Wednesday.

So I have to write the funniest thing down so I won't forget it. So as previously posted Hannah started preschool in Sept. & is loving it. Both of our kids definitely got their memories from their mommy. So after the first day of school she had all the songs memorized and has been singing nonstop. Her favorite song is the days of the week & of course her ABC's. Both of our kids love to sing so years ago I taught Parker how to spell his name using a song. So the other day I attempted to teach Hannah the same song using her name. She said I was spelling it wrong and went on to say it's spelled, "H-A-N-N-O-P" I couldn't help but laugh cuz I thought that was the cutest thing ever. H annah playing in her dress-ups

Well I went to the Surgeon today & Both nodules are Malignant. He said that the one on the right is the size of a ping pong ball & the other is the size of a olive or a grape. I will be having a total Thyroidectomy on October 10 th . It is an inpatient surgery and I will have to stay anywhere from 1-5 days depending on how well my body is handling the situation. About 4 weeks after the surgery I will have to have a radiation treatment. I don't have alot of details on that because I will have to go to a different Dr. for that procedure. So that's the situation. At least I now have a date and kind of know what to expect. So life as usual for another 1 1/2 weeks I guess. Thanks again for all the emails, posts, & prayers. It means alot to me and my family that there are so many people thinking about & praying for us. Our lives truly have been blessed & will continue to be blessed. THANKS!!!

This is a report of the last week. Wednesday was the day of the biopsy. So I go to the hospital and get taken back to the radiology department/ultrasound room. The tech comes in and explains the process and we get started. They gave me a few shots to numb my neck and then using a needle went into the nodules. They used 3 needles for each nodule. They didn't just stick the needle in, they jabbed it in and out 4-5 times per needle. The worst part was that in order to do the biopsy they had to also do an ultrasound at the same time to see where to put the needle. So not only could I feel the pressure but I could see the needle inside of me at the same time. The lab guy was in the room and after each needle would take the sample to prepare the slides to be read. The process only took about 30 minutes but felt like FOREVER! My neck and throat have been sore ever since. Thursday -waiting, waiting, waiting.... Friday -I received a call from my Dr. and was told that the nodules were Mali...

Well last night I decided to put Hannah's hair in sponge curlers. I'm usually not that ambitious especially late at night when I'm ready for the kids to be in bed. Parker thought Hannah's hair looked quite cool. Hannah not too sure about all the "bumpy things" as she called them. We took them out this morning & this is what we saw. After we tried to style it. Hannah loved her curly hair today. She already told me that we can do it again tonight.