Summer starts

We took a trip to the New Jersey shore and Philadelphia for Memorial Day Weekend, with a stop at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey on the way! They had a really fun Safari ride with interesting animals and a log ride we did all together. We had a fun day.

Then we walked around a small historic town then made it to Ocean City where we really enjoyed the boardwalk and finding shells on the beach.

On Sunday morning we drove to Philadelphia and went to church right next to the temple. Later that night Jon and I walked around the city and enjoyed seeing some history!

We planned to stay and see some sights on Monday, but I was having a lot of shoulder and back pain and we decided to drive home early Monday morning. Sweet Katie had her 5th birthday the next day but I cancelled her friend party since I was in so much pain. Megan made her a beautiful cake all by herself! I sure love our sweet Katie, she brings so much joy to our family!

Katie loves her Beanie Boos!

A week later after 3 doctor visits, my first visit to a chiropractor, 3 massages from awesome visiting teachers and a friend to try to calm my spasming muscles, my house cleaned by friends from church, and lots of prayers we figured out that I had pulmonary emboli (blood clots in both lungs) and I was taken by ambulance from Ellis Urgent Care to Ellis Hospital for three days of testing and starting on blood thinners. It was a scary time, but we were so blessed to have family and ward members praying for me and my family and Jon's mom flew in the next day to help out. She was here for Jon's birthday and we all shared ice cream in my hospital room.

The Relief Society presidency came to visit me and brought flowers and magazines, a sweet sister from the ward brought Jon and I some Stewart's gelato to share, and Megan picked me flowers from our yard. And it was wonderful for Jon to have his mom here to give him support and be with the kids so he could spend time with me during the day. I was so grateful that there was not significant damage from the blood clots and I was able to go home after just a few days.

I keep a marker board inside our cupboard with the meals written out for the day so the kids and I know what we'll be eating. Jon found this while I was out of commission.

I spend the next couple weeks trying to take it easy and recover and was able to notice improvement almost every day. I am so grateful for my health and I know that I was guided to figure out the problem through a friend from my ward who gave me the idea to have the doctors check for it. I am grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me to be ok and blessed my family to get through it with the peace we needed even though it was still hard. While I was in the hospital Jacob and Megan ran in their schools Fun Run. A few days after I got home we went to Six Flags with Jon's mom. I walked slowly then we sat in the shade while the kids played in the water park. Later Jon's mom took some family pictures. Then my mom came, Megan ran in her 5th grade track meet, Megan got new birds (she named them Percy and Annabeth), and I got to help Jacob's class make molasses cookies. Jon also brought Jacob fishing and Jacob was really excited that he caught a fish and got to clean it and cut it with his new pocket knife for Grandma Tueller to cook! He even tried a little bite :)

It was hard to say goodbye to my mom and be in full adult mode again, but I did it and got to go to Megan's fancy 5th grade graduation with her and the kids all had their last days of school. Whew!