Life is short - cherish what you have

I wanted to post this because it really hits close to home. We all know how short life can be and how quickly things can change. Cesar (a new employee at Crossroads) just recently lost his 3 month pre-mature child due to compilations. Our family has seen this first hand and knows how hard it can be. Luckily we got the positive side of the possible out comes. I think we are all that much more thankfully everyday. Please take a second to read what our regional manager had to say.

To All Employees,
As some of you may know, Cesar Valladares (groundskeeper for Crossroads and Palladio) and his wife were expecting a baby. A few weeks ago, Cesar's wife had complications and ended up having an emergency C-section at the University of Utah Hospital. Their baby was born 3 months pre-mature but was stable. His wife was in the hospital for a few days and was later released but had a severe infection to her wound. She was also told she would be unable to have any more children. Cesar had been working full time while also caring for his wife and child and driving up to the hospital every day to spend time with his newborn. Last Monday morning, Cesar received a call that his child was in serious danger due to an intestinal infection and was transferred to Primary Children's for emergency surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery did not go well and Cesar and his wife received the worst news a parent can receive and were put in a position to take his little girl off of life support last Wednesday.

Cesar is a very responsible and hard working individual, but due to this situation, he has been unable to work. Although, he has only been with the company a short time Wasatch is assisting him with Bereavement pay to help in his situation, but he doesn't have any vacation or additional leave available. We are hoping to raise funds to help Cesar out with some of the memorial services and other expenses he has. If you would like to help, please contact Eugenia Cascante cr.manager@netwasatch.com or 801-973-0794 and she can come and pick up your donation. Every little bit can make a difference for Cesar and his family, even if it is a couple of dollars.

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

If you would like to help Cesar and his family out please call me at 801-973-0794 or e-mail cr.financial@netwasatch.com. I can give you more information.

hhhmmmm

What to say... I don't know!!! Robert finished softball the other night. It was fun. He starts his 2nd job tomorrow night :\ I can't help but feel horrible about it. I am so thankful for having such an amazing, selfless, husband. I dont know how he does what he does.

I graduated my outpatient therapy program last week. I have been trying for the past month to convince myself I should be happy and proud but when the day came I was really upset. I felt like I didn't deserve it. That because I wasn't 100% of where I expect myself to be - where I WANT to be - that I failed. I am continuing weekly therapy and I decided to repeat the program immediately w/o a break. So, I am hoping my doctor is right ... that if I can let go of my self-judgment habit I can go so much farther. Logically I know I have come an extremely long way from where I was 6 months ago. I just want to be perfect right NOW and that's not going to happen :)

The boys are great. I'm not feeling well so I'm gonna head to bed.

So Far September

Well it's time for another update :) I have tried every day to get this written but haven't been successful, obviously!

Things have been moving along. Lots of medical crap that we're less than enthusiastic about addressing - but have to.

Carter saw his urologist on Monday and will have to have at least 2 more surgeries. One to clean out the infection that has developed due to his first surgery in March. So we're optimistic that the infection will be cleared the first time. Once the infection is completely cleared, we can schedule the surgery to repair the torsion - AGAIN! What are the odds that the surgery would repair the initial torsion, then a second one develops that is different than the first. I just feel bad for my Monkey. I guess that any mother has trouble being patient when their child is in pain. I will be excited to put this behind us and move forward. It is already affecting Carter psychologically. So I want this done fast!

Rayden is great! Potty training with ease! He is the most independent little shit! He has to do everything himself all the time! He saw rob go to the bathroom once and now he REFUSES to sit on the potty. He has to stand! We have step stools in front of the toilet & one in front of the sink so he can go potty & wash his hands w/o help. Letting go of ME controlling things is the biggest challenge. Its hard to step back and let the boys do things on their own. Besides me being a control freak - it blows my mind that my babies are big enough to be doing so much alone.

Robert is enjoying his new softball league. We go to his games whenever possible. Basically - whenever I can get other people to go with me because the twins LOVE running around the top of the complex and they go in opposite directions yelling "chase me mommy!" It is impossible for me to wrangle them alone. The boys LOVE watching Rob play. They appropriately "GO DADDY! HIT THE BALL!" or "YEA DADDY!" and "DADDY CATCH THE BALL!!!" and with whatever he does he gets "GOOD JOB DADDY!!" Rob says he can hear them when he's playing down on the field - which makes him happy.

As for me; I'm still blissfully employed as a Mommy! It is absolutely amazing. I am so lucky. I just hope the twins like it as much as I do. I'm sure that some days are questionable haha
I still have medical crap to deal with. My Intersticial Cystitis has been bothering me since I stopped one of my medications at the request of my pain docs. I used to take 2 anti-seizure medications: 1 to control my pelvic pain and the other to deal with the fibromyalgia. The new DR said that the fibro medication should control both... yeah right! *sigh* I don't have the energy to fight right now. My pain is constant and the pain medication on takes away certain pain - others are constant. Things with my gastric bypass haven't been going well. I've gained weight back with no clear reason why. We were thinking my stomach was damaged and stretched out from something that happened in March. I had a second surgeon do another scope of my stomach and they found out why I'm sick & vomiting all the time; along with the stomach pains. Still no answer about why I can't lose weight. My stomach measures 4cm from top to bottom - so it's very small. What they found was at the bottom of my stomach there are two tunnels. One is where my intestine was re-attached and that is normal. The 2nd tunnel is where my intestines were before surgery. Instead of closing that opening right up at the stomach, the doc closed it off further down so what is left is a tunnel that food can sit in and not go anywhere- so my body tries to get rid of the food by pushing it up cuz it cant go anywhere else. So that process is what makes me feel so sick all the time - food that is partially broken down but not digested. Yummy! The only way to fix that is to operate again and close that off right at the edge of the stomach. How we are going to pay for that - NO CLUE! My old insurance paid for the first surgery but I don't have that insurance anymore - just Rob's, which covers NOTHING related to bariatric surgery. The new doc I'm seeing about my stomach has me doing a detailed food log for a week and keeping track of my calorie intake. He thinks that it something hormonal that's preventing weight loss. May be my medications also. So it's a work in progress. I'm just thankful I FINALLY found a Dr. that agreed to take over my treatment. I've been searching for months - every office refused to see me because of who did the surgery - he is such a jerk. Whatever will be, will be.

Jer is moving out & a friend of mine will be moving in next week. I am looking forward to that. So have a busy week ahead of us. We are finishing the bathroom downstairs. Then we will paint the bathroom & the bedroom. Not to mention cleaning out the basement so she has her own space. Having someone pay rent will make things easier for us. Rob is still getting a 2nd job though. We are still paying for Carter's last surgery... now we have the scope I just got (which bills like an operation AKA WWWAAAAYYY expensive!), and Carters surgery thursday plus his 2nd surgery as soon as the infection clears. And even though this infection is a complication from the initial surgery - the insurance won't cover it that way (which would be free) because it didn't happen within the first 10 days. So it is like a brand new surgery. His first one was almost 1,000 out-of-pocket. Crappy insurance! We're just trying not to think about it because worrying just makes things worse. Carter's surgeries are unavoidable so it doesn't do any good to stress. Things have a funny way of working out.

WOW it's much later than I thought! Time to give sleep a try! WISH ME LUCK! ;)

~ Shelby

Kite Festival

The Snyder-Warenski clan took a road trip to American Fork for a kite festival. American Fork has just added new windmills to produce "green" energy source for the city. They kids liked all the kinds of kites and all the colors. They even got to make a kite of their own and then go fly it on the mountain side. Photos.... of course.