One Going Home...the Other Still On Bedrest

My mom just called(it's 6:10pm here) and said that they are just waiting around for Jack's doctor to show up at the hospital and give him the green light to go home! He's been released by everyone else but her. So, he's on the mend and ready to get home and drive my mom crazy. As for Abby, she was doing great last Friday, but Saturday she had a relapse and is back to stumbling around again. She is sticking to the same meds and I have to call the vet everyday to check in with him. Loads of fun.

The Surgery Gang

This week has been very busy. Monday afternoon, after trying for 5 minutes to get our 7 year old beagle, Abby, to go outside, noticed that she was not walking right. Her back legs seems to wobble and slide from side to side, much like a drunk person. I got her to the vet, got x-rays done, and found that she has a herniated disc. So, after having a slumber party at the vet's, I was able to bring her home. She is on steroids for anti-inflammatory to help with the pressure on her spinal area. She is still having problems walking, but is definitely back to her stubborn self. I have to carry her up and down the steps to go outside and she is thirsty and hungry a lot due to the medicine. I have to call the vet everyday and check in with him on her progress. We should have a follow-up some time next week. There is a possibility that she may need surgery! Yikes!

Tuesday, after Abby arrived home, my mom called from St. Joseph Hospital and said she and Jack would be by. Jack had his heart cath done that afternoon and they had found that 3 arteries were blocked, so they were going to operate and do a triple bypass surgery the next morning. My sister and I kinda worked in shifts...she went to have lunch with mom and stayed til about 3 and then I had her watch the kids so I could go over. I arrived at the hospital shortly after Jack had gotten to his room yesterday to find out that he ended up having 4 arteries worked on instead! He had his breathing tube in, but was awake and alert. They were trying to get him to sit his head up on his own before they took out the tube. They wanted to make sure his airways were open enough. He would take short breaths and make his heart beat faster, putting pressure on Jack's incision and causing him a lot of pain. There was a lot of grimacing going on. He made some awful faces. Finally, the doctor said he was ready for the tube to come out(it was 5:15pm when I got there and 7pm when this was decided), so we had to leave the room(7-8:30 they kick people out for shift change and took that time to take out his tube). It was very hard to see him after surgery. All of the beeping machines were making me nervous. Before I left the room I asked him if he was ready to run a marathon...he shook his head, and then asked if he wanted me to braid his wild hair. Again, he shook his head. Carrie and I use to braid his hair when we were in high school/middle school. Mom, Greg and I got to sit and talk in the room and waiting room while we waited for him to become more alert. I left the hospital at 7:15, and went to pick up the kids from Mary Anne.

Aiden and I went to see Jack today. Mom watched Aiden while I went in to say hi. It was so much better to get to talk to him and have him talk back to me!! I didn't get to talk to him long. I reminded him of our "conversation" the night before and he smiled. He didn't really remember it, though. He even asked mom this morning when he was going to the hospital...that was after he got some good meds, of course. We had a short conversation about the kids and his pain before he fell back to sleep. Mom said he didn't sleep well and Jack said the nurses had given him a "bath" this morning, which hurt him when he had to move. He looked so much better this morning, though! So far, so good! He already has a substitute to preach for him this Sunday and next(Greg), so at least I know he's not PLANNING on skipping any of his recovery time!

Jack and the kids before he was admitted to the hospital Tuesday night.

What's That Phrase Again?

I think the phrase is suppose to be "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb", but mother nature never got the memo. After putting the city, as well as most of the state, under a blizzard warning, this is what we had to show for it. An inch and a half of it was sleet from the day before, and then we got about 5 inches of snow...give or take. This was the FIRST time my kids have gotten to play in snow...EVER! Sure it's snowed plenty of times, but either one or both of the kids was sick, or it wasn't very much snow, or I was just not wanting to hold my baby Aiden while I chased Emily around the yard. Emily got to wear her new snow boots that I bought for her in January. It hadn't snowed since I bought them, so I was grateful that she got to wear them at least once! Aiden on the other hand...well, I'm sure you've read previous blogs about the curse of the extra wide foot. He doesn't actually have shoes to wear in the snow. So, he got to wear Emily's brown boots..they aren't extra wide, but they are at least brown and a size and a half too big. That helped give his fat foot a fighting chance. He found out very quickly that the snow was edible. He'd pick it up and eat it, even off of his boots after we were back in the house! Justin said that we will have to teach him about yellow snow very soon! :) Daddy enjoying his little snow monsters.

The kids really enjoyed the snow, but when it starts sleeting on your face, you have to call it a day!

Here are the kids(Aiden was "helping" daddy shovel the snow off our walkway) in front of our house. I was off the curb, standing in four inches of water under the snow. Our curbside gets pretty flooded when it rains. Thankfully, I had on my snow boots!

Making tracks in the snow. Justin was throwing snow up in the air and the kids were running around by him. Me and the kids...they were not thrilled to have their play/eating snow time interrupted. By the time I got to take a pic with them, the battery on our camera had already died(5 minutes into playtime). Justin took this with my cell phone's camera.

A nice little black and white shot of our street. We hadn't had much traffic down our street yet, so the snow was still pretty and not yet slush. Tim and Rena left early on Friday to head up to KC and St. Joe to see Ja and Heidi. They missed all of the wintery fun here, though I heard it was quite cold and suppose to snow there. They DID bring back our door that we bought while we were there!!! We didn't have room on the way back, so they hauled it for us. Justin put it in the corner of our room by my side of the bed. I walk in the room, say "AHHHH" and just sit there and stare at it. It's so pretty! I cannot wait to get it on the wall! Some other weekend...

We were suppose to take pictures this weekend with our favorite photographer, Jackie Cooper, but had to re-schedule due to the weather(they were going to be at the park!). The majority of the snow in our yard melted today and there are giant puddles everywhere in the backyard. Streets are clear once again. Tomorrow there's suppose to be thunderstorms. Maybe next week it will be 80 degrees? Well, it could happen. It's Kansas!

Spring Break

This past week we took a Spring Break trip to visit Justin's brother in Missouri. Lots of driving, shopping, birthday ice cream cake(Ja and Heidi's b-days), and Justin even picked up Jason's sick bug. Ugh. On our way to St. Joseph, MO....we got new books to catch Aiden's attention. He would open a book and say, "OHHH, WOW!!!" Ja and Heidi's new townhome has a great front door. All of the door ways in the house had the same casing work done around them(minus the windows seen here). It was so gorgeous! Justin, Heidi, and I took a trip to a salvage store in town and found an old 5 panel door to use as our headboard. Karsten helped Justin clean it off.

Karsten is getting a cow to raise for future eating purposes. Papa told him to name it Steak or Hamburger. Karsten loves to talk about his cow and how he is going to take care of it. He likes to wear his boots a lot now. It's very cute. The kids picked the coldest day there to play outside! They all had a great time running down the hill and screaming, though. Heidi got some great shots of them squealing! Aiden is watching me write and post pictures...he saw Chloe and started chanting her name. He LOVED Chloe...mostly to fight over toys with.

Pete Smith, Jason and Karsten at the soccer game. Pete is the associate minister at the church...and was my psychology teacher at MCC.

Playtime

I have been taking photos for a couple of weeks, but hadn't added any of them, so I thought that I would put them on here now. These are all of Aiden BEFORE he got his stitches out.

All Moved In

My sister, Mary Anne, and her clan have been moved in and started settling in their new house for almost 2 weeks now. I wanted to post more pics of their house, but I want to wait til things are more settled down. So, here are the before and after shots. This is their house that they spent the last 10 years in. They've had it since it was just Mary Anne and Perry, til their oldest son turned 10. 3 kids in an 1800 square foot house. Now the much needed upgrade....3 kids (5, 8 and 10) growing everyday in a more appropriately sized house..3500 sq. feet. Whew. Emily calls it "Aunt Mary Anne'ts Big, Big House". Yes, Mary Anne'ts. That's how she says her name. Sorry, I forgot to go through the camera's menu and change the black and white back to color.

First Stitches

I don't know what my son has against spreading out his wild happenings. We had just seen the family doctor yesterday for his follow-up on the pneumonia episode and got the all clear with that. Came home, had naptime. Then the fun started. Last night I was getting supper ready and Aiden came into the kitchen, slipping on the floor with his new socks and running his head into the edge of the open shelving of the kitchen cabinets. Hearing the pans crash, I ran around the island to see what had happened and blood was dripping quickly out of his little head. I grabbed the kitchen towel and tried to contain the mess til I was able to put a bandage on it. My poor daughter was in the middle of going potty, so I was trying to get her to get up and pull her pants back up...but she wasn't able to do it herself! AHH!! Finally, after getting the kids to the truck, tracking down my wallet and calling daddy we made it to the ER. Luckily, my sister is 5 minutes away, so she met us at the minor emergency...which is just 4 blocks away. She took Emily with her and Aiden went with me to make his first visit to the ER. My friend Tari said we need to have a punch card for the kid...10th visit is free. Aiden cried when he hit his head, when we took the sticky band-aid off to show the nurse and when he couldn't get down to walk on the floor during the hour long wait for the stitches, but he didn't do anything for the actual stitches.

The gash was too deep and gapping too far for glue, which he wouldve picked off, so they had to go with stitches. The nurse had put a big clear bandage w/numbing gel on his battle wound(it looked like plastic wrap) and left it to sit for an hour. Justin came into the room 30 minutes or so after we had gotten there. He called his Lt. and said, "I'm heading out west, my son..." and the Lt. said "okay". It's bad when you just say "my son" and they let you go. :) Justin only had about 40 minutes left to work til his shift was done, so it wasn't such a big deal. To do the stitches, they wrapped a blanket around Aiden, making him like a mummy, to keep his arms in place. He laid down on the bed, very still, and just watched the doctor do the stitches. The only time he moved was when the doctor asked if he was going to go and eat...he nodded his head. So, two hours, $100 and four stitches later, we were at my sister's house having dinner with her family. I am soooo glad they moved back! :) If this kid is anything like his dad(Justin got 6 stitches from a claw hammer hitting him in the head...thanks to his brothers!), we will be visiting the ER a lot!!