Monday, June 23, 2014

1 Week before surgery

6/23/14
Dear Everyone,
Well, Alexa & I made it to Minnesota finally!  I am totally amazed at how much Heavenly Father helps me!!!  While I was packing things Wed & Thurs I kept having the strong impression that I needed to go downstairs & get my small workout fan to pack.  I ignored the impression several times & continued packing other things.  I had prayed that I would be able to have a clear & alert mind & not forget anything that we would need.  On Thurs as I was talking to Shayla I told her that I kept having this strong impression that I needed to pack that fan & she said, “Well, you’d better go right down & get it.”  I finally did it right then & got it into the car.  We took off around 8:00 AM Fri morn & made it safely to Ty’s motel in Wyoming.  Marvin & LaRee were there working also so we got to go out to the BIG fancy restaurant there in Lovell, Wyoming with them.  The food wasn’t much good but the company was!  It was great to see Tyson & Ty again even though they went back to work after dinner & didn’t get back to the motel till 10:30 or so.  I was already asleep.  The bed was extremely hard though so I kept waking up all night.  I even had my latex mattress pad on it & my back hurt so bad the next morn I could hardly walk!!  I felt so sorry for Ty & Tyson for having to sleep on those horrible beds!! 
Alexa & I left Sat morn & made it to Bismarck, North Dakota where we had a room reserved at the Kelly Inn.  The bed was the softest, most comfortable bed!!  I really slept great that night & didn’t want to get out of bed the next morn!!  We didn’t leave on Sun till about 11:45, mainly cuz I thought it was only about 4 hrs to Minneapolis but it ended up being about 7 hrs.  By the time we got to Minneapolis the traffic was at a standstill.  I thought that was really weird that it was so bad on a Sunday till I remembered the nurse talking about how bad the traffic is every Sunday night coming into the city because of all of the people coming back from their cabins.  The drive was absolutely beautiful the entire way after leaving Wyoming & I kept thinking about how much Ty would have enjoyed the drive.  He loves to see beautiful scenery just like my Mom did.  Everything was so green!!  When I got here I found the place we were going to stay.  I had reserved a room in a senior care center for the week.  The hospital had sent me some info about different places we could stay & their name was on the list.  They rent out some rooms to people who are in need & having surgery at the hospitals.  It was $150 cheaper than anywhere else & was a 1 bedroom apt fully furnished & everything.  I had a really hard time finding where to go to get my key since the place was like a maze, it went on & on!  I had parked across the street by the park & Alexa was waiting in the car.  When I finally found the front door there were lots of old people out there visiting & just sitting.  This old mad in a wheelchair yelled to me & said, “Mam, I need you to come here.”  I just told him to wait just a minute & went into the building.  The lady at the desk had an envelope that had my name on it with my key inside it with instructions written on it to have security come & show me where my apt was & where to park.  She called security & this young guy came & we went out the door so he could show me where to park.  The old wheelchair guy yelled to me again & said, “Mam, I need you to come here!”  The security guy said, “What do you want, Bill?”  Bill then told him he didn’t want anything from him but wanted me to come to him.  I started laughing & the security guy just told Bill we were busy right then & he would come over to see what he wanted after we were done.  Wow, I was only there for a few minutes & already had “men” hitting on me, hahaha!!  I drove around to where I was supposed to park & the guy met me there & showed us where our apt was up on the 6th floor.  As soon as we walked in Alexa was crinkling her nose & said it smelled like “old people!”  It was very clean though.  The TV was very old but did have cable hooked up to it even though it didn’t work well.  We didn’t know what the wifi password was & that was another bad thing for Alexa.  She really didn’t want to stay there since it was so hot in there also.  We turned on the AC unit & decided to go find something to eat while it cooled down.  We ate at Old Country Buffet which was not very good & way too expensive.  We drove to a couple of hotels in Bloomington, which is where we stayed last time we were here, but they were completely booked up.  We came back to the senior ctr & I went down to their computer ctr & tried looking up some different hotel options but found that it would be way too expensive to try to get one that was any better than this when it was this late.  Well, this is the amazing part of my story!!  My bedroom was so dang hot that I just knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep!!  Well guess what?  I had packed my trusty little fan!!!  With my fan going it made that bedroom just right & I slept just fine!!  Heavenly Father is just amazing!!!  He helps me with even these little small things that really don’t matter all that much, just makes things more bearable!!!  He really does listen to our prayers & helps us with whatever we ask for if we are doing our part!!   I have now decided that this place is really perfect for us.  Alexa was really worried about the neighborhood, which really isn’t that great.  But the building is pretty secure.  You have to have a little thing on your keychain that will let you into the building & there is lots of security around.  Plus it is really close to the hospital so I got up this morn & finished carrying our stuff up to our room.  I think once we get the internet working Alexa will like it just fine too. 
I was sad we missed Shayla’s bday on Sat but I know she was well taken care of.  Dana planned a lunch for Sat which I think Chelsea, Tiffany & Tonya went to.  That night I had given our tickets that we got with our pass-of-all-passes for the play Cinderella at the Scera outdoor theater to Chelsea to take Shayla to.  Melissa & Shannon went also & said it was really good.  Also Melissa moved into our house to stay with Shayla while we are gone so I feel much better about that.  There have been a few break-ins around our area lately so I was a bit worried.  Ty & Tyson ended up having to stay thru Sunday so they could try to finish more up on Mon & will go back then.  I took their Sunday clothes to them so they were able to go to church.  Tyson has a campout on Wed thru Sat so they need to get home to wash their clothes & get ready for that. 
Well, that’s about it for now.  We only have 1 appointment today which is with the pain dr.  Tomorrow we don’t have any appointments so we will probably try to go check out the famous Mall of America or something.  I am so amazed at how calm I feel & Alexa too.  I’m sure as the surgery gets closer we will feel more anxious, which is normal, but I know that all we have to do is pray & read our scriptures to know that our entire lives are in Heavenly Father’s hands & He can make everything work out the way it is supposed to so we don’t need to fear.  I love you all & I’m so grateful for all the fasting & praying on our behalf!!!  Thank you Dad for reminding me about D&C 98: 1-3.  I need to read that often right now since it was written just for me!!!
Love Malinda  

PS. Nevermind about the apartment being ok, I just took 3 hrs to find a new hotel, move all the stuff we’d just brought up to the 6th floor back down & check out of the room when we found out there was no wifi.  That was just too much with a TV that hardly gets any channels & the ones it does get were very fuzzy & no wifi.  Alexa would have gone crazy. We are now at a Super 8 motel about 15 min away from the hospital but I now have a happy girl that doesn’t have to smell “old people”, haha!

Hey guys, I know it's late coming but this is Alexa, yes i'm finally writing on my blog. The senior home did smell like old people. When we asked about the wifi the lady said that they didn't have any but that they were getting it soon. After we left I told my mom that they didn't need it because the people wouldn't even know how to use it.

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