A LOVEly Week!

This past week is one of my favorite weeks of the year…the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, which is one of my favorite holidays. I love everything about it. The candy, food, cute hearts, colors, the nice loving mood! I just like it all. I snapped a few pictures...but missed pictures at some very important events....I really need to do better with that!

I am well known for jumping back into things way too early after surgery…so this past week I had to refrain even though I feel great. I am so surprised how wonderful I feel after such a major operation, but I am very grateful.

Monday night we kicked off the week by doing the kids’ Valentine’s for their classes for FHE. We did over 65 valentines, but the kids (and me!) had a lot of fun.



Tuesday my mom was nice enough to come clean my house for me. That is the one thing that has driven me nuts the past few weeks is that I can’t be a neat freak like I like to be since I am not supposed to lift or strain myself. Then that evening I went to my nutrition/diet class. I was a little bummed because even though I lost an organ, I only lost ½ a pound! I had lost 4 ¾ pounds the week earlier so I won’t complain.

Wednesday I was starting to go stir crazy. Thank goodness I had an out that evening with Candace and Karlee. We went to see “Dear John.” It was a much needed get out, thanks girls!

Thursday turned out to be an unfortunate day. I woke up with a MASSIVE fever….like scary fever. I had really swollen glands, a sore body, the chills…it was strange. Kind of like a cold/flu thing, but I couldn’t pinpoint why I was so sick. I called my Dr. who really wanted me to come over to Roosevelt to make sure it wasn’t an infection from my surgery. I told him I was too sick to drive, so he decided to call in an antibiotic with strict instructions if my fever didn’t break overnight to come immediately to the ER. Well I was in bed all day long, and thank goodness Kayler took an extra long nap. I was almost delirious when Hallie and Gavin came home from school. I was in and out of sleep, and I remember telling them to just stay inside, don’t get hurt, and that I would try to wake up soon. I remember just praying that someone would help me, I hadn’t been that sick for a long time. Right at that instant, our cute little neighbor girl called and said, “I just was wondering if you needed help with your kids?” I was so grateful that she came and stayed an hour until G.J. got home from work. It was definitely an answer to my prayers, and I was deeply humbled that she was prompted to call me. The rest of that night I just spent in bed.

Friday I woke up and I was MUCH better. I really don’t know what was up the day before, it was the strangest thing. I still felt a little yucky, but not bad enough to miss celebrating my Grandpa Bowthorpe’s 87th birthday. We went to lunch and then had some cake and ice cream at his house. I was able to give him the quilt I had made for him out of my grandma’s clothes. He was so touched and cried as he wrapped up in it. It is a priceless memory.

This is the kids with all their Valentine Goodies from School. I had a HARD time not sneaking it from them! It was so cute to see what all the other kids did for Valentines!





This is Hallie's Heart Hairdo for the year. It turned out cute and stayed in for 2 days.



That night we went over to the Willy and Melissa Holfeltz’s to play games. It was just good to get out the house again. We played with Kassi and Levi Luck, Chris and Mindy Deets, and Derrick Jaramillo and all their kids for a little bit. The kids did pretty well and didn’t want to leave, so that is a good sign they were having fun too!

Saturday was a busy day. I was feeling pretty much over my sickness at that point. I let Hallie start 4-H and they had a big thing all day Saturday. I had groceries to get, a few errands to do, and a date to get ready for. It wasn’t a date with my cute hubby, but my friend Mandy. We don’t get together often enough, so when she called and invited me to be her Valentine date, I was so happy. G.J. was so sweet to stay home and play with the kids. We went to dinner, which was SO good. Then we went to the movie “Valentine’s Day.” It was good. Kind of cheesy, yet ended good and I enjoyed it.

Today was a nice day at church. We are enjoying a heat wave over 35 degrees! I love seeing the snow melting…meaning we are one step closer to Spring time! G.J.’s parents will be here soon. They usually stay down south all winter, but unfortunately another one of G.J.’s uncles passed away, so they had to make the trek back for his funeral. I told G.J. this is going to be a common occurrence. His dad has 9 siblings that are all married and most of them are in their late 60’s or 70’s. So funerals are going to be happening quite often now.

I made the little pizzas for lunch. Then the cookies and strawberries went with our delicious dinner of chicken alfredo pizza.





I am so happy the kids have a few days off of school. We are headed to Salt Lake tomorrow. I have a sweet Valentine (G.J.) who bought me a 30 minute massage at my favorite spa, Sanctuary Day Spa. I am going to get it tomorrow afternoon. Then Tuesday morning is Gavin’s big CT Scan. I hope we get encouraging news.

So there is my fun filled week in a nutshell. Hope all of you reading this are happy, healthy, and well!