Bought my first box today. Just finished two cakes......and as you may recall, there are only five in the box. Mmmmmm.......they're just OH so good! Am I right to say that the love of Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes is somehow inherited in the Lunn family gene? I'm pretty sure we all love them. I know Travis is bringing expensive cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory for Christmas----so do you think it's unfair if I bring several boxes of Christmas Tree Cakes? :) Tell me, has anyone else started eating these delicious treats yet this season?

Missa reminded me to put up some pics of Halloween. Since I was sick this year, Isabel's cowgirl outfit was thrown together--and Jake, well, a football player was the only thing Brandon approved of. I leave for surgery at 4:30 am tomorrow. I'm really hoping it works this time. I started round two of Levaquin today (just as you predicted, Patti). The fevers would just not go away and I was feeling so sick that it was hard to take care of the kids. I'm also trying Ditropan for the stent. Hoping it will work better than Urelle, which is what I've been taking for the past week. Wish me luck!

Okay, when I previewed my blog and saw that huge picture of those evil stones staring at me---I thought even I don't want that to be the first thing I look at when I go to my blog---so I threw this old pic up of Isabel so I don't scare everyone off.

It's been one month since my last post. Some of you know what's been going on.....others may not. Yesterday I had a fever of 101.2 and I was sick in bed all day. Today I'm feeling better, so I thought I'd post and catch up. It's been 10 days since I had my lithotripsy shock wave surgery. That means it's been 10 days that I've been living with a ureteral stent (pic above showing plastic tube that goes from my kidney to my bladder, wire taped to side of my leg---feels like I'm walking around with a catheter in, I know, nice). My second surgery will be sometime this coming week. They think Thursday----we'll see. I'll have to keep the stent in for probably a week after that----so we're looking at three weeks with this thing---and that is of course, if I don't have to have a third surgery. Good news, well maybe not exactly good, but worth saying that after I talked to my doctor, he gave me a prescription to help me with the stent and I've been getting around better now. I can even lay on my side sometimes. I'll also be able to leave my house this week for the first time, now that I can walk a little better. That is, unless I get another high fever accompanied with excruciating pain in my lower back from the kidney stone. As you can see, I took the pleasure of posting a picture of kidney stones. Of course, I don't know what kind of stones I have now----but just look at those things. They look EVIL. Oh, and I also thought it would be fun to show everyone the picture of my sulfa-allergy rash----that covered EVERY inch, and I mean every inch of my body. It's good to look back so that you can remember how good life is when you're healthy. This year I took really good care of myself and got into shape training for a half-marathon. I never would have imagined that I would have had such a hard year with my health. BUT, like I said, if we never knew the bad, we would not know the good. In life, there is opposition in all things. And this too shall pass. In case this post needed some comic relief, I included some updated pics below of the kids.

I took these snapshots of Isabel & the ones below of Jake, sometime during this past month of October. They're the most recent photos I have of them. I thought it was funny to see how Isabel wasn't in the mood for pictures when I started---but by the last one she warmed up and posed like a 'fashion model', or so she likes to say. Let's see.....update on Isabel. She's been doing great in kindergarten. Next Saturday is her last soccer game. She'll be playing basketball next (Brittany will coach and Tyler will be on her team). To my surprise, we had to coax her into it. She wanted to do gymnastics----and only agreed to basketball if she could do gymnastics too. I don't like to overschedule children---so I believe in only one sport at a time---but I have to admit that Brandon & I wanted her to do basketball so much that we agreed! Right now Isabel is very excited for Christmas and her birthday. It's almost all she can talk about.

Jake is in his OshKosh overalls that Papa & Grandma gave him for his birthday. He's still wild---and has separation anxiety issues, but next time you are around him, ask him to give you a kiss. He almost always gives everyone a kiss.