bromeliad

When we found out in the spring that Ruby had cancer, my loving brother in law came to visit. We sat on the back porch and had good conversation. I loved his uplifting and sympathetic tone and words. I just remember loving having him over. He gave us a couple plants, an orchid, which I have kept alive so far, and a bromeliad. I've never had one before. The color is faded so I cut the on the mother plant, but hope it can still live? Tell me what you do if you have one :)  I love indoor plants, even though I only have a couple and am not the best at making them thrive. I loved that Mark's Grandmother Thackeray always had thriving house plants.

I posted on instagram some of my fav pictures from this week, but then I thought about other more favorites I wanted to share!  Ultrasound on Thursday showed good news, placenta looks like its in a safe spot and I won't need a hysterectomy. Whew. I would have been ok with not being able to have more kids, but a c-section and that at the same time was really making me nervous.  I got a steroid shot yesterday too to help with baby's lungs.  Not my fav was last night when I woke at 2am with contractions all.night.long. I never went back to sleep. I drank tea, foam rolled, had Mark give me a blessing.  They were always 8-12 min apart. Not painful, but uncomfortable enough they kept me awake. Finally about 6:30 I got up to start making breakfast. I was so glad I didn't feel it urgent to got to the hospital as I needed to get Siri off to school and the rest of us went to close on our refinance (so excited about that!).

After the closing Jane Ruby and I went to the Dr for me to get the 2nd dose of steroids. I told him I'd been having contractions so they're going to culture a urine sample just in case (which is what happened last time...contractions cause by a UTI I didn't know I had).  As today went on they lessened but were more uncomfortable. The girls helped Grandma Sandy decorate for Christmas and I went back to see Steve to have him check to make sure I wasn't dilating. Whew, more good news. Everything is ok. And they've gotten more minor since then. I need to be mindful to keep super hydrated!

Other favs...Celebrating Mark's birthday. I just love him more than anything. The girls and I had fun while he was surfing in Cali last week. I loved seeing them swarm him when he got home. Going to lunch for my sis in laws birthday, getting a new diaper bag which is a backpack-not 'cute' but totally functional, being gifted a hair cut/color by a friend from the gym-loooove(d) it! Reading the Book of Mormon together but each of us have our own copy and pencil to highlight any mention of Jesus Christ. This is a challenge from our Stake President and it has gotten the kids so much more interested in reading scriptures! Walking with Ruby down to the park that last warm day to meet sisters at the park on the way home from school.  Jane's Kindergarten Veterans Day program. The best. One of the teachers has a son serving our country and she was amazing at relaying her emotion and gratitude to the the kids and parents. And we're getting a fence installed just to enclose the backyard. Hooray for keeping the kids in and neighborhood dogs out!

Ruby and Miss Kim

Annual man surf trip

happy birthday dadda!

one more warm walk to the park

I felt like a zombie all day today but at least my hair looked cute :)