1 year ANniversary!

Today marks 1-year since my surgery at UCSD to remove the acoustic neuroma pushing on my brain. (I canโ€™t believe I just wrote that!) So much has happened over the last 365 days. I give thanks to God every day for the gift of continued healing.  We celebrated my ANniversary (Get it? AN = acoustic neuroma) by having dinner out.  Then we came home for chocolate vinegar cake – Grandma Lois’ recipe.

Jake and I took some time this morning to reflect back on 1/23/18.  Some of it I remember clearly and some I don’t.  It’s probably a gift that the meds I was on also kept me from recalling a lot of what I experienced immediately post-op.  There are times I think back to what has transpired over the last year and a half and shake my head in disbelief.  Did I really go through all of that?  Then the reality of my lost hearing, my scar, my hair that continues to grow back, my tongue that has lost its sense of taste on one side, all “prove” to me that yes, I did in fact experience all of this. And God has shown me His faithfulness throughout all of it.  I am changed.  I’m definitely not the same person I was before my surgery or even before my diagnosis. And that’s ok.

Next up – 1-year post-op MRI to (hopefully) confirm zero regrowth.

Battle of the Books – take 1 2018

This is the second year Shecklet #2 has participated in the Battle of the Books at school. This year they had 12 teams of kids! The top 4 teams from today’s competition go on to face each other again in April and then the top team goes on to compete against other charter schools. #2’s team ties for second place, so on he goes to read books from the next competition!

Taco Sunday

We were out of taco seasoning so Shecklet #2 helped make a quadruple batch – some to use now and some for later.

Swurfer Sunday

This kid got a swurfer swing for Christmas and her dad made it possible for her to use is in the heated garage during the winter.

I even gave it a try. Shecklet #4 made sure I had a helmet on for safety!

Sledding after rain and snow

Jake took the Shecklets to find inner tubes for the sledding ramp they built toward the bottom of the hill in the backyard. They came home with these:

On the second run, Shecklet #2’s donut hit a screw head on the fence and exploded. Thankfully, he was physically fine. Unfortunately, he was pretty devastated that his new tube only lasted one and a half times down the hill.ย ๐Ÿ˜ฅ

Christmas Eve 2018 ๐ŸŽ„

We didn’t get the usual post-mass family or kid pictures like we typically do. Instead, we opted for photos by the tree. They got off to a bit of a rocky start for the youngest Shecklet, but eventually we were able to get some real smiles out of her โค๏ธ

Settergren Christmas 2018

We gathered at Grandma Lois’ church to celebrate Christmas with almost all of the family this afternoon. We feasted in Swedish meatballs, sausage, vegetables, salad, jello & rolls. After opening gifts, we had desert. Delicious food and fun family made for a great day – but we definitely missed having Papa Dale with us!

Shecklet #2 decided he wanted to dress more festive, so we tracked down a llama sweater for him (at our second Target stop.). Not wanting to be left out, Shecklets 1, 3 & 4 also found festive Christmas tops to wear to the family party.