poor derrick

So Derrick had his surgery last Thursday and it has been super sad. He has been SO miserable! I feel bad. He had a tonsillectomy with a nasal septal reconstruction. He really needed it though. He has sleep apnea pretty bad; He snores like a jackhammer and will stop breathing and then gasp for air (the longest I've counted was thirty seconds), or he will bury his head in his pillow and not breathe at all. Scary! He was all set up to have this done last year but insurance denied us because tonsillectomy and nose surgeries were considered a "pre-existing condition" (I'm not a big Obama fan, but goodbye insurance crap like this is something I can get on board with!). So, needless to say, it has been a rough couple of years in the Peck household, sleep-wise.
But he finally got it done! And while I'm so happy that we will both get sleep, I'm so sad for my poor hubby! The first couple of nights weren't too bad but he was pretty swollen. He had the drip pad under his nose because it was bleeding pretty steady still. With the bleeding and the swelling he was really congested and that made for some crummy nights. I was giving him pain meds around the clock (it is not fun to wake up every four hours, let me tell you!), but he had to breathe through his mouth which dried his throat and so his throat got super painful in the night and in the mornings. So, that has been the worst. But...we went to the doctor's today and they removed the splints (those suckers were huge! like an inch of plastic shoved up his nose ugh), and he also got rid of a lot of the drainage in his nose (it was gross) so he is breathing a little better! We came home and he has been sleeping for like three to four hours! And let me tell you the most beautiful part...HE HAS HIS MOUTH CLOSED AND NO SNORING!!! Oh, I feel like I could sing! I'm finally gonna get some good sleep! We both are! Crummy, crummy surgery but this is going to be so nice when he recovers! I posted some pictures and the bottom ones are RIGHT after surgery, doesn't he look so sad? He was saying some funny things though (my husband is the most politest man after anesthesia, it was quite funny). But no worries, he is on the way to recovery!
The other pictures are of my G-pa's 80th birthday where we had a family dinner and then of my old roommate Candace's homecoming from her mission in Chile. Good times!

Before the surgery...he didn't even complain about the IV! He's got nice fat veins though

I told him he looked sad, so he was trying to smile. Kinda makes this picture even more sad! He kept asking me if he was a good patient, because he didn't want to be the kind that I complain about and he kept telling everyone thank you like a billion times ha

This is me being bored while I waited for them to release him haha. Two and a half hours in phase 2 recovery! My gosh it was a long time!

This is the same night, and yes, he is studying for his DAT test. That is my dedicated man!

Welcome home Candace! The roomies reunited again! (almost! Amber comes home from her mission in August!)

My super cute neice. I haven't seen her since Christmas and she remembered me! She kept saying "Mandy, Mandy, Mandy!" Except she can't really say the d in my name so it sounded like "Manny, Manny, Manny" ha

We are just missing Mitchell!! He comes home in August too!!

answers and reminiscing

so everyone is asking how to make my awesome temple picture! the sad thing is that I am at work and it is almost two in the morning so I can't give an answer! I will find out the name of the company who came and did the demonstration and post it as soon as I can!
in a nutshell, here is what we did:
We had the four sides of the frame that were already cut out for us and we painted them and let them dry. The picture was basically a poster that we glued onto a board and then put some texture stuff on it and let that dry. then we heavy-duty stapled the frame together and then stapled the board with the picture to that. They were way easy but I'm not sure where you get all of the materials from. I will post that info the next time I go to my mom's house promise! (should be in the next few days).

This morning I had to force myself to sleep in because I knew that I would be staying up all night working a grave, so I didn't wake up until 10 in the morning. ugh. I always feel groggy and gross when I sleep too much, even when I know I'm doing it for a good reason! I stumbled to the kitchen, poured myself some marshmallow matey's, turned on "good things utah" and they were just starting the cooking segment and had the restaurant owner of Rafael's Mexican restaurant there doing a cooking demo (they made rice pudding which is apparently a mexican food-news to me!) (You are all probably wondering why I'm writing this ridiculously long post and where this is going but it will all tie together haha) but this made me think of my old roommie Ali, because she used to work at that joint! That wonderful restaurant is the reason I'm the champion of guacomole in my family because dear sweet Ali taught me how because she learned it from working there. And then when I went running in the afternoon, I had switched my playlist on my iPod and the song "Sweet Child 'O Mine" came on by Guns N Roses. I remembered all of the many times playing this on guitar hero down at Snow or the many times trying to fall asleep while others played it! So this got me on a "Good Times at Snow" kick and I thought I would blog about it!

Ten things I miss about Snow College:
1. Of course, guitar hero parties. Especially the ones at midnight with our neighbors across the grass!
2. Being able to wake up at 8:15 for my 8:30 class and then being able to attend in PJ's and a beanie without getting the death stares that I got at Weber when I wore that.
3. Long walks with roommates; particularly the one to Walmart.
4. Sunday dinners followed by Sunday night treats! They contributed to the twenty pounds I gained that first year but it was oh so worth it!
5. Being able to have a random bonfire in the canyon and having at least twenty people stop and introduce themselves: this was sometimes good but sometimes bad-especially when one of the "people" is a solitary man who goes by the name of "fireman dave"
6. Watching "Sons of Provo" so many times that we can practically quote the entire movie in normal conversation
7. Going to Bowman's and pushing each other around in the shopping carts.
8. Throwing rocks at old TV's on the hill behind Ephraim city
9. Having people over to sign the famous couch
10. All the friends and memories I made!