Its been a year...

It was a year ago on september 11th 2008 that Bindi's amazing Dr. in Salt Lake removed Bindi's tumor from her eyelid. We were and are so thankful for the amazing job that he did. The doctors here offered us little hope and kept brushing me off, they told me that most likely she would go blind in that eye, but because of Dr. Patel our little girl has NO vision damage! We went up to see him about 2 months ago and he was very pleased with the progress. Time goes by so fast! There are no words to describe the relief that I have. We only have to see him once a year now, but I will forever be thankful for his kindness and the gift that he has given out little girl. Below are pictures of the progression of the tumor and then the after surgery pictures! Get ready to be amazed!
Bindi right after she was born
Bindi at 1 week old
Bindi at 2 weeks old, you could just start to see it. This is when the dr.s kept telling me it was a sty.
Bindi on 4th of July, I had finally found a dr. (with the help of my amazing mom) that agreed it was not a sty and that wanted us to come to Primary Children's in Salt Lake to take a look at it.
It had grown quite a bit in just a week.
Bindi on her blessing day, she was 2 and a half months.
By this time the Dr. knew that it was going to be removed, but wanted to try to wait till she was 6 months old to do so. He wanted us to take lots of pictures and make sure that her eyelid wasn't dropping to far down over her eye. ( He feared possible vision loss)
As you can see it began to droop down over a substantial part of her eye. We sent him this picture and he immediately scheduled her surgery for 9/11. She was only 4 and 1/2 months old.
The day after surgery. The Dr. told us that it would most likely be swollen shut for the first 3-5 days, but our snoopy little girl wasn't going to keep that eye shut for anything! The minute we took her bandage off she started looking around to make sure she wasn't missing out on anything.
Two weeks after surgery
Three weeks after surgery
One month after surgery
Before
One year after surgery!

Wahoo!

Okay so we did this a while ago, but I never posted the pics. And by we I mean Brandon, I can honestly say I did absolutely nothing to help besides spray him with the hose, only because I thought it was rather warm to be doing yard work, I did not do it for my own pleasure. Anyway, Brandon and I's backyard when we bought the house was...well... a little on the ghetto trash side, there were some really weird things that were just dumped back there. We didn't even want to look outside, let alone let our dogs back there, so Brandon got to work. First we had a really awesome guy come and lay our patio. Then we had to get all the pavers up, and once again by we I mean Brandon. Then he had to shovel ALL the rock out, we listed it under free stuff on craig's lists and it was all gone within a few hours. Brandon leveled everything out and then filled it with good soil, we then picked out a tree (which I named Claire, yes I named our tree) and planted it. Then the following day they laid all the sprinkles and got that whole thing working. Then finally our beloved grass! I have dogs and I love them dearly and was so happy to give them grass so their little feet didn't have to go across the nasty rock backyard. Brandon asked me the other day if I liked our backyard and the answer is YES, YES, YES, I know its little, but its our little oasis. We have a patio set with a fire pit in the middle and this week we sat out in our backyard and roasted marshmallows at like 11:00 at night. Its also nice because Bindi can run around and play back there now.

Ladies & Gentlemen.... drumroll please......

WE HAVE TEETH!!! AND.........




HAIR!!! CURLY BLONDE HAIR!


Now please, I am aware its not a lot of hair, but its something! and as you can tell I am very excited about it!
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS....
my garden is doing amazing!!! This first one is my newest little radishes, the carrots will be coming in just below them. yummy My beloved cucumber plant!
This is Zach! He is always lurking somewhere in my garden, but he eats all the other bugs so I let him stay!
another pic of my huge, beautiful cucumber plant.

and here is just one of my green pepper plants!
Its been 5 days since my surgery and Brandon finally allowed me to leave the house today. We took Bindi to the park and let her run around for a little bit. It was actually in the 60's earlier so she got to wear her new winter hoodie that I found on sale 4 months ago!








its been pretty busy at the Gatewood home lately. Brandon finally took his LSAT test and we will find out his score on October 19th! We are very excited to see what his score is! Then he will start applying to law schools! Hurray only 3 more years!! lol he will have his bachelors in May. I had my gallbladder removed and boy was that fun (insert sarcasm here) After the surgery the Dr. told me that next time I have a surgery to let the Dr. know that I become violently ill when given anesthesia! But i am finally starting to feel better, even though I still can't pick up Bindi!