Phoenix Trip

JR and I just got back from an awesome Phoenix trip this past weekend. We went to a conference for a new company we're working with. It was so much fun and we got a lot of great information. The key note speaker for the conference was Robert Kiyosaki, author of "Rich Dad Poor Dad". We're so excited for this upcoming year because we know it will be life changing! Here's a few pics from the event:

This is Jennifer and Darrin Dowd with their family.

She's one of my mentors and is so much fun to work with.

Husband Tag!

I've been "Husband Tagged"...

• What is his name? James Ryan Peterson (J.R.)


• How long have you been married? Six years, eight months, twenty-one days and about nine hours.


• How long did you date? This is always a tricky question, but only because we try to find ways of tacking on a few extra dating days (because we got engaged so quickly!). Officially we were dating about five weeks. Unofficially about six weeks (like that makes it sound any better :-). We were engaged almost seven months though, so maybe that makes up for it (only in Utah :-).


• How old is he? 28. He’ll be 29 on May 27th.


• Who eats more? This is a loaded question! Of course I have to say that JR eats more…but I enjoy myself too occasionally :-).


• Who said I love you first? JR did, but I said it right back so it was pretty much mutual.


• Who is smarter? I wish I could say it was me, but being married to someone with a partially photographic memory doesn’t really give me a fighting chance!


• Whose temper is worse? I guess I’d have to say JR, but only because he’s a guy and has testosterone. Honestly neither of us really have a bad temper. We’re both pretty easy going.


• Who does the laundry? I do. But JR will help if I’m slackin’.


• Who folds the laundry? I do. But I don’t do ironing. JR does that for his clothes if he wants them pressed. (Does that make me a bad wife?!)


• Who does the dishes? I do. I think this is the chore that JR hates the most, so I don’t mind doing it. Plus, I have mad skills when it comes to organizing the dishes in the dishwasher. I do the dishes for JR and he cleans the bathrooms for me.


• Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? JR does. We had the idea of switching sides of the bed every so often when we were first married, but I think it only happened once and now we’re too use to the sides we own!


• Who pays the bills? I do. I like keeping them all organized and on time. JR would do an awesome job with it, but since he works all day I try to do my part at home.


• Who cooks dinner? I wish I could say it was me all the time, but when you’ve got an amazing cook for a husband it’s hard not to take advantage!


• Who drives when you are together? Mostly JR does. He’s a good driver.


• Who is more stubborn? This is a tough one. I think JR is more stubborn vocally, but I’m quite silently stubborn myself…sometimes even more so than him!


• Whose parents do you see the most? It’s probably pretty equal. We might see JR’s family a tad more, but only because they live a little closer.


• Who proposed? JR did. It was quite spontaneous (I was in my PJ’s!), but very sweet.


• Who has more friends? I hate admitting this, but I do. JR would have lots more friends, but he moved around so much as a kid that it was hard to keep up relationships. In his defense most of our ward knows me first as JR’s wife (“Oh, so you’re JR’s wife!”) because everyone knows who he is!


• Who has more siblings? I do. It’s pretty close, though. JR has five other siblings and I have seven, so we both came from large families.


• Who wears the pants in the family? I think when all is said and done JR does. He’s an amazing Priesthood holder and a great decision maker. Plus his butt looks good in pants (hehe).

I now tag Angelica, Rachel, Angel, and Jennifer. Have fun!!!

More News...

Well, I don't really know how to put all this, so I guess I'll just wing it...

Today I had a doctor's appointment to check on my progress and remove the drainage tube I had (yeah!). I was worried about finding out how well my facial nerve was healing because so far my face has stayed about the same. Little did I know that JR and I would be hit with worse news that we definitely weren't expecting. Luckily I found out that my face should return to normal, but it could take upwards of six months. I'm not looking forward to that, but at least I know it'll eventually go back to normal. The news that we weren't expecting was the results of my biopsy. From what the doctor said on the day of my surgery the initial findings from my tumor looked benign and there were no worries. I honestly wasn't worried about the results of the biopsy, so when my doctor told me today that the more in depth biopsy results showed cancer I was floored. At my appointment they didn't have the final results yet, so JR and I had to wait a few more hours for a phone call telling me what my fate would be. Finally, we got a call from the doctors telling us the good and bad news. The bad news: it was cancer. The good news: the biopsy results showed they got all of it. It was still hard to hear given that I was holding out for some miracle that it would all come back benign, but for bad news it was the best you could get. I won't go into too much detail about it all, but so far things look good. I might have some radiation treatments to make sure that it's all gone, but we'll talk to the doctor about that next week.

It's the weirdest sort of reality hearing a doctor tell you that you have cancer at 27, but I'm taking it one day at a time. JR and I are both very hopeful given the type of cancer it is and the results from the surgery that everything will be just fine and that I won't have too many more problems from it. I'm feeling really grateful right now that we caught it when we did and that the doctor handled my surgery so well. Right now, I'm just excited to see my kids! JR is on his way home from picking them up from my parents home. I haven't seen them since before my surgery on Thursday. I miss them like crazy! I'm sure Cali will wonder what's wrong with mom's face, but I don't care :-). I love my family so much and I'm so grateful to them for their love and support. Thank you so much to all of you for your love and prayers. I know it makes a difference. I'll continue to keep you posted and let you know what we decide to do from here. Thanks again for all of your support. I love you all!!!

PS- Sorry no photo. I though about putting one up of my face trying to smile, but decided against publicly humiliating myself :-).

Surgery: Before and After...

Well, for those of you who really wanted a visual, here's some pictures of my surgery. For those of you who didn't want to see...sorry :-). It's kind of hard to see in the before picture, but if you look close you can see the marble sized bump behind my ear that I had to get removed. They thought it was a cyst, but from the surgery they realized that it was more like a tumor because it was much more solid. My doctor is confident that it's benign, and we haven't heard any different from the biopsy results, so so far so good. I'll probably know for sure what the results are on Monday at my appointment, so I'll let you know then. With how small my incision was around my ear it's amazing that my surgery took over three hours. My facial nerve was attached to the tumor, so they had to carefully scrap it away. Because of that I don't have full mobility on the left side of my face, but that should return shorty. It's weird not being able to close my left eye all the way or move my nose and mouth very well. It's a little annoying, but I guess it could have been worse! I just get to look like a freak for another week. Then hopefully things will be back to normal. Thanks for everyone's concern and prayers. It really means a lot! When I'm feeling better I'll write more and keep you updated on my progress.

Before...

After...



Here's the gross drainage tube I have attached to my ear. That will be removed Monday (hopefully)!

Crazy January

Well, so far our new year has been a little crazy! We enjoyed New Years, but everyone got sick after that and we're still trying to recover! I spent my birthday (Jan. 8th) taking my sick kids to the doctors. Cali has handled her virus pretty well, but poor Isaac has been really sick with an ear infection (his first one) that just doesn't seem to want to go away. This was his first time really being sick and it was so sad :-(. He had to have three antibiotic shots plus take oral antibiotics. He's a tough kid! Luckily they're finally getting better, but now JR and I are sick and are trying to kick the bugs that we have. I swear we've been to the doctors more times in the past two weeks than we ever have before! And to make matters worse I have to have surgery next Thursday! I'm a little freaked out because it will be my first official surgery, and my first time being put under for anything. I'm just trying not to think about it. So, by the time my surgery is over and I'm recovered (hopefully :-) January will be over! I guess every family goes through months like these. I'm sure February will be better :-).

Here's a few pics to get you through until next month :-). Hopefully life around here will be back to normal. Wish me luck with my surgery!!!

Cali and I with the beautiful cake JR made for me. Chocolate and coconut...mmmmmm.

Here's a cute pic of Isaac sporting his cool 'faux hawk'.

What a cute little stinker Cali is :-).

She's a stinker, but she's so pretty too, if I do say so myself :-).

Fun New Clothes :-D

I don't know about you, but I think Christmas time is a perfect excuse to get new clothes :-). Here are a couple of pictures we took Sunday morning sporting our new Christmas outfits...

Doesn't Isaac just look handsome :-).

Cali looked so pretty and grown up in this dress, complete with

sparkly Cinderella princess shoes. She's getting so big!!!

I can't believe she starts Primary next Sunday!

Here's me sporting my new Christmas/Birthday clothes.
Notice my killer new boots (that I got on clearance of course :-).

Our Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your Christmas was as great as mine. It's funny how much having kids makes Christmas that much more fun. I couldn't wait to see their reactions from the presents we got them! Here are a few pics of our Christmas morning...

This was a present I bought JR like three months ago.

He was SO surprised...it was great!

This was a gift for Cali and Isaac.

Don't worry, Cali didn't mind helping Isaac unwrap it :-).

It was cute seeing Isaac play with his toys.

Here's his cool dump truck...definitely a man's toy!

Cali LOVES her new cell phone.

It's a good thing it uses only imaginary minutes.

This picture of Isaac just makes my heart melt every time I see it.

Honestly, how cute is he!!!

Here's Cali's "haul" picture.

Of course she was too busy talking on the phone to stop

while I took the picture. I think we're in trouble....

Christmas Favorites...something old, something new

Christmas time, for me, includes not only the joys of the present, but the joys from all the Christmases of my childhood too. Certain decorations and ornaments that I have hold special meaning because they remind me of Christmases past. They make Christmas extra special for me and add to that magical feeling of nostalgia I feel this time of year.
One such decoration that I have is the star that's on top of my Christmas tree. It's the star my family had on our Christmas tree when I was younger. My mom gave it to me on JR's and my first Christmas. That Christmas, being our first Christmas together, we were picking out Christmas ornaments and lights that we wanted. The colors we picked for our tree were blue and silver. When we were trying to decide what we wanted on top of our tree I remembered this metal blue/silver star that my family had used and I mentioned to my mom how I thought it would look perfect on our tree. I had just briefly mentioned it to my mom, but within a week I got a package from her with that star inside. I know it was just a simple thing, but it meant so much to me that she gave it to me. To this day I love puting that star on my tree. It's not the most perfect star to look at, but it's one of the special things I have that remind me of what Christmas is all about.

Another fun thing about Christmas is getting new decorations that mean something to me, that I know will continue to be special for many many Christmases to come. This year I got the Willow Tree Nativity Set. I love Willow Tree figurines, and my new nativity is one of my most favorite things now! It is so beautiful I wish I could keep it up all year!

Those are two of my most favorite things about Christmas because they help me remember what Christmas is all about - the birth of our Savior and the spirit of giving and love that we should share with everyone. So, thank you for letting me share them with you! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that you can enjoy some quite moments with the ones you love, feeling the spirit of this amazing time of year. I love you all and wish you a very happy holiday season!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!