A Few Loose Screws

Last Monday I spent all day getting ready for the next 8-12 weeks of my life to be in total upheaval.  I cleaned, shopped, exercised and decorated.  That weekend, I had gone out with some girl friends, to get my last fix in.  And Nana and Pop arrived to help take care of the children while I was busy taking care of other things.  

Bright and early Tuesday morning, we went up to the hospital.  We arrived about 5:45 am, and therefore got to sit around a bit.  After hubby changed into some fabulous tights, socks, and gowns, we did quite a bit of sitting and waiting.  

And, why not work a little bit while you wait?  So hubby answered some emails.

Somewhere around 7:30, they took him back to do a few more things, but didn't actually get him into surgery until much later.  I was quite pleased with how the hospital and nurses handled things.  They took my phone number and called every hour or so to let me know the status of the procedure.  And everyone was helpful and nice.  About 20 minutes after I got the phone call that the procedure was done, and everything went well, the doc came in to speak to me.  He said everything went exactly as expected, and that it should be fairly smooth sailing in the recovery.  He also brought up an x-ray to show me hubby's new hardware.  Honestly, it looks horribly painful and quite menacing to me, but...  I have faith.  As hubby said, he is "just as God made me.  Just with a few extra screws."  We can only hope there aren't any loose ones ;)

 For this particular doctor, and/or this particular surgery, it is SOP for the patient to spend the first 24 hours in ICU.  He was the only patient in ICU that day, so even though there is usually a 2 person/over the age of 12 limit, the nurses were nice enough to let everyone come back and see him.

 He was bed ridden for the first 24 hours, but doped up enough on pain meds that the kids could sit with him for a bit and not hurt him.  After being at the hospital for over 14 hours that first day, I finally went home around 8pm that night, with the patient resting peacfully.

 Wednesday I wanted to be back at the hospital in time for rounds, so I was in the car by 6:30.  When we saw the doc, he again said that everything was fine.  Hubby had had some stomach issues over night.  Seemed his digestive system was rather slow, and there was quite a bit of trapped air inside.  The air needed a way to escape, and it seemed to prefer coming up.  Throwing up with a sore back isn't pleasant.  It was also making his stomach tight and distended.  They still discharged him from the ICU and he graduated to a regular room.  Now all we had to do was wait for physical therapy to come and see him.  They were the ones who had to teach him how to get out of bed, how to walk, and how to move in general.  They finally came after lunch, and hubby was able to get up and walk for the first time.  Of course it was still slightly painful, but he did an amazing job.  And he was able to be passed off to walk down the halls a few times a day to get the healing process started, to get used to how everything works now, and to see if it would help with the air inside his belly.

 By the evening time, he was still having some stomach issues.  He was uncomfortable and the stomach medicine they were giving him wasn't working as quickly as they wanted it to.  After school, Nana and Pop brought all the kids up to see daddy again.  Unfortunately, he wasn't able to see them.  But they seemed to enjoy waiting in the room beside him, watching cartoons and hanging out with Pop.

 Later Wednesday night, we took another few rounds around the halls, and I left the patient around 10:30 that night, still fairly uncomfortable because of his stomach, but not horribly so.

 Thursday morning, I stayed at home for a bit to get the kids ready for school.  Up until this point, Nana and Pop had been wonderfully and graciously getting my children ready for school.  But Thursday was picture day, so the girls wanted some fancy hair-dos.  Pop went to the hospital to spend some time with the patient and to let me stay home with the kids.  Once I got to the hospital, we got some decent news.  We could probably go home that day!  Hubby's stomach issues had started to resolve over night, and he was finally able to eat parts of a solid breakfast on Thursday morning.  We had to get passed off by physical and occupational therapy, and then we would be able to go home.  That meant they had to teach me how to change the dressing on his back.  The incision is only about 4-5 inches long.  Doesn't look too bad, does it?

 Thursday we waited until PT and OT came.  They said that if we felt comfortable, we could go home.  Which was great news.  They would be sending us home with a walker and an elevated potty seat to make home care easier since hubby is not supposed to bed, lift or twist.  The problem was, that even though insurance had approved it, we were having a difficult time physically getting our hands on them.  I was scared to take hubby home without those things, and by 6 pm, it was obvious we wouldn't be getting home that day.  We decided to stay the night in the hospital, hoping it would be easier to get the things we needed the next day.  Thursday I again left the hospital around 8:30 pm, after the patient fell asleep.

Friday morning I arrived at the hospital early in the morning.  The patient was up and at 'em, ready to get the process of going home started.  We bugged the nurses first thing in the morning to see where we were with the walker.  I left the hospital around 8:30 to go to school.  The kids were having a thing, and I wanted to be there for them.  I came back around lunch time, bringing some clean clothes and ready to take hubby home.  We were still waiting to hear on the walker, and it was getting increasingly frustrating.  But hubby had decided he was going home, with or without it.  I helped him shower and did his dressing change all by myself!  He sat down for a lunch of yummy 

hospital food, and laid back down to take a small nap.  

 Around 2 pm, we finally got news that the walker was on its way.  It would be delivered to our house in an hour, so we busted outta that joint, and hightailed it home.  Unfortunately, something went awry in the paperwork or something, and when we got home, there was still no walker.  I helped hubby get down to bed, and left him to the care of his parents so I could go get his pain meds.  Again, there was some minor difficulties getting the meds (they weren't preapproved by the insurance), and I almost had a heart attack thinking we would go through the weekend without any pain medication.  Thankfully, I was able to get that ironed out too, and came home just as hubby was waking up from his nap.  

Also, thankfully, the walker was delivered to the house around 6pm that night.  It was 4 hours later than what we had expected, but it arrived!  After the addition of some tennis balls (so it wouldn't scratch the wood floor), he has his own, personal, old man, walker!  Now, at 2 weeks post surgery, I can thankfully tell you that he really doesn't need it.  In fact, we went walking around the neighborhood for the first time, and it almost caused more pain than it helped, getting caught on cracks and stick fragments.  But it is useful as a child deterrent and reminder that they can't hang on daddy like they used to.  At least, not yet.

 Funny story:  I am much too lazy to move the potty chair every time I have to use the bathroom.  But, as you can see from the picture, it raises the seat several inches.  So, my feet hang and swing just like I am 3 years old again.  And it makes hubby giggle.

Because hubby can't bend over, and can't sit in a recliner, he has been eating every meal at the table.  That is slightly irregular for him (he occasionally would eat at the recliner because his back or head hurt), but pleasant for the rest of us.  Also because he can't lean over, there has been a decent amount of spillage.  So....  we had to get creative.  I think it works!

Good news is that the surgery went well.  We have every hope that hubby will make a full recovery, and that he will be better than his previous "normal" after a few months.  So far, his recovery is going very well.  He is walking well, managing the pain well, and even already "working" a little bit.  Bad news is that his recovery is expected to take 8-12 weeks.  He is only supposed to sit in a hard backed chair (no recliner or sofa) or lay flat on his back.  So, even though I think his pain and recovery are going well, it may be the boredom and the (lack of) patience that kills us!

Special shout out to Nana and Pop!  They drove 12 hours to spend 10 days with us.  They fed my children, got them ready and to school, entertained Kelsey, and sat with the patient.  The week would have been quite different without their help, and I am most grateful for their assistance.  And their company.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming :)

Big News this Week

Waaaaaaaaay back in 2013, hubby got rear ended.  I don't think I ever made a huge post about it.  I may or may not have mentioned it once or twice.  His back hurt immediately after and has hurt ever since.  We have gone through physical therapy, massage therapy, and 2 doctors, and this week is the big week.  Hubby is getting surgery to fix the dadgum thing.  Hopefully, after the next 12 weeks of pain, he will start to feel better.  And, hopefully, in the next 12 weeks, hubby doesn't drive me insane by staying home, laying on his back, and having nothing to do.  Wish us luck!

PS- This week will be light.  I'll be back next week though.  Hopefully.  If hubby isn't hogging all my time and the computer ;)

Canoe Trip Jumping

When we got invited to go on the trip, I said yes, not really knowing exactly what the trip would be like.  For some reason, I thought we would get in the boat, paddle for a bit, get out, and go home.  I didn't realize that it would be a good 4 hours in the boat by the time we made it from the drop off point to the pick up point.  All the swimming happened near the beginning of the trip, and I wish now (looking back) that maybe I had participated.  At the very least, that we had gotten in and swam again later.  

Good news is: We still had loads of fun!  I just might do things slightly differently next time. 

Right around the corner from the first swimming hole was a "cliff".  And only the brave would jump off.  Ironically, Dylan and Kaitlyn (who I would not classify as my most adventurous) jumped multiple times, while Kari (who usually is quite fearless) only jumped ones.  Hubby, who is really just a big child at heart, jumped several times too.

When we "docked" the boats over close to the cliff, all the kids got out of the boat.  So, Mollie followed.  As they climbed higher and jumped off time after time, Mollie would stand by, whining.  So...  hubby said, "OK.  Lets jump!"  He picked her up, and jumped in with her.  He actually threw her forward from him just a tiny bit so that his undertow wouldn't take her deeper.  She survived.  She swam.  She seemed to have fun.  However, as hubby swam past her, Mollie quickly swam over to him and tried to climb/crawl on top of him.  Maybe she didn't like swimming all that much after all.  So, hubby was nice enough to let her ride on his chest until they got over to the side.  (Where Mollie climbed into Kari's boat and stayed for an hour)

Kinda love this picture.  Shows hubby's adventurous side.  Shows Dylan's adventurous side.  Shows how far up they were jumping.  And is just a good, middle of the action, action shot!

I did manage to get a small video of each person jumping.  And, because I am apparently an airhead and forgot, I filmed them all with the camera sideways.  Sorry.

Even Kelsey went.  Once.  The gasp you hear is the cute lady (previous pictured) who is a sweet, motherly lady.  She has two children of her own.  Both boys.  Both out of the house (almost).  And she worries for all the little children.  I had no idea hubby was literally going to throw her out, but he wanted to make sure she cleared the rocks underneath her.  And, while you can't hear, hubby was giving her instructions and making sure she knew what to expect and still wanted to go.

She came right back up and swam back over to a boat.  When I asked her if she had fun she replied quickly and exuberantly "yes!".  When I asked her if she wanted to go again, she replied in exactly the same fashion "no!"

Canoe Trip

Our family was lucky enough to be invited on a boating trip in September.  And, lemme tell you, the weather was perfect!  Having never been in a kayak, and not in a canoe for a looooong time, I was a bit concerned.  But we decided we could handle it and the whole family should go.  So, Kaitlyn and I paired up in one canoe.

Kari got her own kayak.  She had never been in one, but she handled it really well!

And hubby took Dylan, Kelsey, and Mollie.

Yes, we took the dog!  She seemed to have a good time!

We went to a river that was fed with an underwater spring, and the water was gorgeous!  And cold!  Unfortunately, I wasn't 100% confident to bring my wonderful, expensive camera, lest it fall into the water, and my photographers eye was itching to get some beautiful shots!  But I did bring my older, cheaper digital camera, so I was able to properly document the trip.  I mean, look at that water!

Near the beginning of the river, there was a place that we kinda tied up the boats and the kids all got out and were able to swim.  During that time, Kaitlyn was able to "borrow" Kari's kayak and turns out, she could totally handle it too.

There was a hole over on the side that was fairly deep for just a very small space.  And the kids loved to jump into it.

There were fish in the water too, that the kids tried to catch.

There was a place slightly further down the river where everyone could go "cliff diving".  I'll post more on that tomorrow.  But, after Kelsey jumped off, because hubby was still out of the boat, Kelsey climbed in with one of our friends for a bit.  And, btw, she was sooooooo tired by this point.  We left the house at 5am and she didn't get a nap :)

And Mollie "jumped" off the cliff too.  She rode with Kari (probably because her boat was closest),  for an hour or two down the river after that.

This was my view for quite a bit of the trip.  Its not so bad :)

The boats also came with life jackets (thankfully) and the kids had tons of fun with being in the water.

To be continued.....

The Ol' Door Trick

One day Kari came home from school and said that she had, yet another, loose tooth.  Seriously, this kid is going to bleed the tooth fairy dry!  She had wiggled it all day long, and it was just barely holding on by one side.  Apparently, her father has told her of the trick where you tie your tooth to a door, slam it, and Bob's your uncle!  After working on the tooth all day, Kari decided to try this approach.

She spent several minutes working the dental floss around her loose tooth and even yanked a time or two with her hands.  But, at some point, she lost her never.  She was afraid it would hurt too badly.  She came downstairs and asked me to help her get the dental floss off.  I looked at the tooth, knew how extremely loose it was, and told her it was too late.  In my defense, it really was true!  The dental floss was under the tooth, and would be extremely difficult to fish out in order to cut.

So, she braced herself and went back upstairs.  And there we were.  4 people crowded in a small bathroom, Dylan on the outside.  He had volunteered to slam the door for her.  And, because I had some prep time, I was able to record the whole glorious event!

It actually hit my thigh on the way out of her mouth, and it stung a little bit!

As I have mentioned before, Kari has a bit of a crowding issue.  The dentist/orthodontist recommend that we pull two permanent teeth to give everything space.  He said we could possible stretch her palate, but then her teeth would never line up top to bottom and her bite would be off.

I don't envy her, or the tooth fairy's pocketbook, one bit!

Little People Birthday Chart

Remember when I made a birthday chart for Nana?  Waaaaaay back when?  It was a Mother's Day Present.  Well, I wanted to make one for my mom too.  And, I decide to do a slightly different idea.  I probably would have loved to do one exactly like this one for Nana also, but I didn't have the time to wait for all the supplies to get shipped to me. So, there you go.  

I got the inspiration from Pinterest.  Of course.  

First, I got these little gingerbread men from Hobby Lobby.  Sometimes they are available in stores, but I got mine online.  And, because I wasn't sure if painting them in coats would leave bumpy lines, I just painted the whole thing in skin tone to start with.  I actually already had this paint on hand from a craft I had done before.

Then, just like I did before, I divided the families into colors and painted the "people" according to family groups.  I also differentiated between boys and girls with pants vs. dresses.  Funny story: the kids would always refer to the ones that were only painted in skin tone as naked :)

I also used the same discs that I worked with before, so I could put them as the months on the plaque.  Now, there was some experimenting of course.  If you look at the orange person in the top left, you can see how I tried different pen thicknesses and faces.  I also, originally wasn't going to outline the clothes, but once I did, I thought they looked significantly better.

This is the near finished product.  Name, birthdate, color coded, gender specific outfit....  No face yet :)

I did personalize just a very few.  Grandpa Dave, who passed away recently, was in silver.  He was also bald, so he doesn't have a full head of hair.  And his death date is on the back of his "person".  Grandma Gay (not pictured because I am an airhead) is also in silver (she passed away when my mom was 17).  Grandma Jeanne got her hair color updated because 1- I already had the color on hand and 2- it matches her hair color almost exactly!  Grandpa Paul (white hair) and Grandma Pat (silver hair) also got their hair done :)

Onto the plaque:  I told my mom that this gift was coming, which allowed her to pick some of her own customization.  For instance, she picked both the fonts that appear on the plaque as well as the base color (which is a tan).  I printed, cut out and centered the word and then traced around it with my knife.

You can clearly see the indentations it made on the plaque.  I traced it with my black paint pen, filling in the middle, and let it dry before I put on a sealing coat of Mod Podge.  When I made Nana's, I had trouble with the black paint bleeding into the while, so I hoped the coat of Mod Podge would help.

And then it sat.  For, like, ever.   As you can see, the font Grandma picked for the word "birthdays" is quite curly, and tracing it with my knife seemed daunting...   Yes their are two D's.  I wanted the correct spacing of the letters as well as to make sure the letters didn't angle in a funky direction.  By having two D's, I could line one up exactly over the other, and everything would be perfect!

I finally realized that I could just trace over the edges with a ball point pen (pushing really hard) and it would get the same effect as tracing with the knife.  It was so much easier, slightly less dangerous, but no less hand tiring.

And you can still clearly see the indentation it made!

So, after two coats of white paint pen on the lettering, and a coat of Mod Podge on everything (plaque, as well as people) it was time for final assembly.  If you look (two pictures above), you will notice the pencil lines my wonderful and exacting hubby drew so I would be able to space out the discs better.  In the picture below, they are already glued on.  Then, it was onto the hooks and screw eyes.  I ordered the hooks from Amazon here.  They have something very similar at Hobby Lobby, but in brass...  and I prefer silver.  Just be aware that they come from China, so it takes several weeks to get them.  The screw eyes (which I feel like is a weird name, but it is the name printed on the packaging, so there you go) I picked up off the shelf in my local Hobby Lobby, but they also sell them online here.  I had to pre-drill the holes, so the hooks and screw eyes would go in easier.  It also seemed to keep the "people" from cracking in half.

Also learning from last time, I used the pliers right from the start, so I wouldn't get a blister.  I put the screw eyes in the top of the head and the hook in the bottom.  They hook onto each other quite easily and move when/if a person needs to be added.

I put hooks directly under the discs but accidentally screwed them in too far.  The screw eyes couldn't fit in the small open space, so I had to unscrew them a little bit.

The finished plaque.

And the finished piece!  Voila!

It may be hard to tell from the picture just how cute it is, but it really is adorable!  And I love it.  I will be making one of my own, for sure!  With, perhaps, just a little bit more personalization even.  Also, please note, there are no April birthdays!  Since this is for my mom (and dad) I included their parents, their siblings (and spouses) and their children and grandchildren.  Having 50+ cousins on each side, we decided not to include them.  Not because we don't love them, but because A-that would be dang expensive, and B- very time consuming!

Grandparents Day

This year, Grandparents Day was Sept 13.  And Kaitlyn has a pretty wonderful teacher.  She does all sorts of fun, extra things with the kids.  She hosted a Grandparents brunch for all the Grandparents in town.  I really was surprised by how many children had one or both sides close enough to visit.  In a class of 20 something, only 5 or so children didn't have any visitors.  Knowing that neither Grandma/Grandpa nor Nana/Pop could be in town (though, ironically, they both were there a week or two after), hubby and I went in their stead.

The children started the activity by handing out muffins and lemonade.  While we enjoyed our snack, the class went up and entertained us with this little ditty.

Then, it was onto the interview.  Kaitlyn called Pop on the phone to interview him while I used technology and smart phones to ask Grandpa the same questions all the way down in South America. 

See!  Proof that we were there :)

Then, because it is school after all, they used the answers from the interview to make a Venn Diagram.  They compared and contrasted answers from themselves and their grandparents and presented one similarity and one difference to the class.

At the end, Grandparents were presented with this gift to take home with them.

While we were happy to participate and support Kaitlyn and her class, and while we are sorry that her grandparents couldn't be there, we are glad that technology is so cool and useful.  Not only to help Kaitlyn participate in the activities, but also so she could feel closer to her grandparents (in a still physically far away kinda way).  Happy (Late) Grandparents Day!