the good and the bad

The good news is I am done peeling and my face isn't itchy or uncomfortable anymore.

The bad news is now that all the tight skin is peeled away, I can't tell a difference. Not one bit.

(The only thing that's different are my ridiculously short eyelashes.)

Day 4

This picture is actually from day 2. And it doesn't even do it justice- it's much redder (well not now but that night it was) and so tight. I look a bit like a burn victim. I took this right after I washed it and there was no ointment on it. It was so dry and my face looked (and felt) really freaky.

Oh, and notice my eyelashes. They are no longer. Well, most of them- I'm such an idiot. I realized that the ointment was getting on the ends of my lashes so I tried to trim them. Yeah, it went badly.

 Right now, it's peeling like crazy and my kids keep telling me how weird my wrinkly face looks. Karter is very concerned, this morning he asked if we should take me to the doctor. Sweet, funny kid.  

Speaking of, we got our pottery back on Saturday. They look really cool and the kids are so excited.

I think that's blood on the mouth, very realistic.

 Zach's skateboard that he wants to make into a necklace.

 Rich with his mug. That creature on the front is a crazy chinchilla (I think it started out as a monkey). There's also a toucan and an elephant.

 And this morning! So much snow! That sneaky little groundhog tricked us.

 Rich went out and built a snowcave for the kids.

Karter is escaping from a bear that has apparently set up camp in there. Those feet would be Zachary's standing on top of the cave.What else?

 And this is my coffee table today. It looks similar to this most days. Add some tape and scissors, maybe some glue and little pieces of cut up paper all over the floor. As frustrated as I get with the constant mess, I love my little artist. :)



Happy, snowy Sunday!

post ablation

Oh man! This is killing me. Well, not really but it is driving me insane.
The actual procedure itself was painful but not too terrible and it only lasted like 10 minutes. Then it stung a bit for the remainder of the day Thursday and my awesome friend Annie brought me a McFlurry to help ease the pain. :)
Then to try to sleep- right... My face has been covered in ointment (which gets on my glasses and my contacts so I can't see half the time) and the skin is a bit sensitive so it was tough to get comfortable and worry about rubbing it off. So, there wasn't much sleep the first night.
(This ointment is part of a post ablation kit that cost me $120 dollars. But after this, I can't imagine not having it. I can't believe that some peole wouldn't get it. It's amazing.)
Yesterday was a bit better. I could see it wasn't as red and it was just super tight and uncomfortable. And my other awesome friend Ash brought me a cheesecake and put claw marks in my arms because of her excitement- she very much sees a difference already! I still can't really tell. When I cleanse it, it's very smooth but feels so weird to the touch. But without the ointment on, you can see how tight it is- there are deep grooves from it pulling. The lotion and the ointment is so soothing. I think I sighed out loud the first time I put it on.
I slept better last night but woke up the the worst discomfort yet. It is so tight and starting to peel. I can't smile or laugh (which Rich keeps trying to make me do) and I had to cut up my waffles into tiny little baby bites because I can't open my mouth. And I have to use a straw to drink my beloved dr. pepper.  :)
A few people asked if I would do it again and my immediate answer was NO. The nurse at Elase compared it to childbirth (obviously not pain-wise) in that it's painful and uncomfortable but the end result makes you forget all that and is worth it. So we will see..

A New Me

Tomorrow (Feb 17th), at approximately 2:00 pm, this will be me:

 (or something similar...)

This is laser skin resurfacing- something I've been wanting for the past 10 years or so.

For those of you that don't know or haven't noticed or whatever, I have scars on both cheeks from a year of hell right after my senior year. That sounds a little dramatic but it really was awful for me. I'd always had such nice, smooth skin (I rarely even got zits). Even when I was a baby people would stop my mom to comment on my complexion (so she says).

Then in April of my senior year ('98), I got a big, painful bump on my cheek. I went to a dermatologist twice and all he said to me was how beautiful I was and blah, blah, blah. He actually used the exact same line both times and stood across the room from me and told me the horrors of the medication he could put me on. In the mean time, I'm developing more of what I soon found out were cysts and having to deal with people asking me if I'd been burned. Most of the time I'd just walk away and cry. Then my neighbor recommended a different doctor so we decided to try him. As soon as he walked in, he told me to lie down and proceeded to give me cortizone shots in my cheeks. It was thee most painful thing I'd endured up until then (this was before child birth :).  He determined that I was allergic to my own oil and put me on Accutane (it's way more common now, but this was the medication the first doctor tried to scare me away from). I went back every two weeks for more cortizone shots and prednizone. It got easier after a while but I still dreaded it each time. This went on for about two years and finally, it seemed to be clearing up. And thankfully it did, I don't know that I could've taken much more at that point.

As relieved as I was to have it gone, now I had to deal with the aftermath- horrible scarring on my cheeks from the shots. Scars that deep were not something I could just cover up with makeup. I'd always had self esteem issues and this didn't help. I still got asked about my scars but as time went on, they lightened up. I even started to forget about them sometimes. And my sweet, sweet (lying :) friends said they didn't even notice them.

Then last October, I found a deal where I could get this laser skin resurfacing for $99!! This is a procedure that is normally around $800 (it was a Groupon thing- we love Groupon!). Then with the prospect of fixing them, the scars started to bother me again. So I went in for a consultation and now, three months later I'm going in to get rid of them... for the most part. She said it might take a couple more treatments to get rid of them entirely but that I'd notice a significant improvement. I'm super excited and a bit nervous. I have to do a deep treatment so I had to get numbing cream (which makes me think it's gonna hurt and I am not a fan of pain) and then I get to have red, flaky skin (like a sunburn) and not wear makeup for about two weeks. I really don't like leaving my house without makeup but it's a small price to pay for getting my self esteem (well, some of it :) back. Yay!!

I'll pretty much be in hiding for two weeks and then I'll post pics of the new me!

Color Me Mine

Yesterday was my nurse's consultation for my medical procedure next Thursday (sounds so serious! more about that later...). It was in Salt Lake so we decided to make a day of it. Rich's sister and her boyfriend took us to a fun little place called Color Me Mine to paint pots. When we got there, there was more than just pots! Karter picked a t-rex and Zachary chose a skateboard. We had so much fun painting and the kids CANNOT wait until we get them back (they have to dry, coat and fire them and such and it takes a few days). Karter is going nuts, he wanted to wait there at the store. 

 I love how focused they both are.

 Rich and his mug

(hmmmm...wonder where our eldest gets his flamboyant behavior from...)

 my pot  :)

 Thanks Jennifer and Clarence. We had a fun, fun day!
We should plan this as a fun Friday. It's a bit pricey but SO cool!

And a funny thing happened last Sunday. Rich and the boys went to church (for the first time in a looong time). They both picked out their outfits. I'm a big fan of Zach's three-shirt-and-tie-on-top-combo. You can't see his socks with sandals in the picture. Ahhh, such style.

When they got home, I asked them how it was and Zachary said "we had to say a lot of prayers." Huh? Then Rich explained that it was testimony meeting where everyone that gets up ends with "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." So Zachary thought they were all praying! Hehe, I thought it was funny.

He also told me that the neighbor across the street was "a principal at our church."

:)



San Francisco

I want to live here:

(Isn't it beautiful?)

 More specifically, here:

Is that not the cutest house ever?!