A Very Special Breakfast

Shhhh!

Don't tell anyone!

All that energy you have... it comes from what?

Ordinary breakfast cereal, it seems, but that milk! Ah-ha! I have discovered your secret! It's the glowing milk!

Bwa-ha-ha!

Freeze!

Put your arms - or whatever those things are - UP!

We have you surrounded!

Merry Tossmas

Okay, I am NOT a blogging genius. There may be a way to import this little video clip into my personal blog, and I'm not clever enough to do it.

And I'm okay with that.

But, really, take just about TWO MINUTES and check out,

Merry Tossmass

Pleeeeease :0)

Sunday Morning

No. I didn't do it!

Kerry was wrestling with Wyatt and Tate, Saturday evening, and then I heard some yelling.

Well, if you play with the Big Boys, be prepared for the consequences! (I think Tate accidentally head-butted him.)

But hey, if you need a conversation starter at church...

Boys will be boys

Oh, I forgot to put this with the birthday pics...

Kerry took the boys to the pool one day while I was recuperating. So before we went to the pool for Tate's party, I was reviewing the pool rules with the boys... no running, shower first, where it's okay and not okay to dive, etc. And the rule on the slide is 'feet first'.

Wyatt said something to the effect that he would start feet first, but flip over in the tube and go head first. Tate reminded him that the lifeguards would kick him off the slide if he broke the rules. "Yeah," Wyatt continued, "but they always give you a couple of warnings first."

"HA!" I said, "But mom doesn't! You break the rules and you sit on the bench with me."

A moment of contemplative silence.

Then Tate added, "Mom, make sure we're not wearing matching bathing suits, okay? Last time he got ME kicked off the slide!"

Oh reeeeeeaaaaaallllllyyyy............

"Figgers" of Speech

Looking back again... Wyatt was a VERY early talker. And he talked and talked and talked. A lot. Another mom-friend and I were just comparing notes on our boys. I think they all went through a stage when they just talked non-stop. It was like having your life narrated.

At times I thought I'd lose my mind, but I miss the unique ways they would express things. It was such a window into their developing understanding. So here are a few 'Wyatt quotes', from about the time Tate was born. Wyatt was 2 1/2.

A spontaneous thought on autumn: “I see green leaves and yellow and orange and red and brown and purple and green. And those leaves will fall off and the trees will just have branches. And then winter will come and it will be cold. And then in the spring it will get warm and God will give those trees new leaves. Green.”

On Kerry having an esophageal manometry: “Daddy had a test, like a coconut tree and he SWALLOWED it.” (coconut tree... manome-tree) I was amazed at what he’d put together in his head!

After (baby) Tate had been home from the hospital for a few days: “Let Mama to take Baby Tate home.” I told him Tate IS home - he lives here with us. Where should he go? “To the hospital!”

When a woman at church asked if it was fun to have a baby brother: A solemn expression and a very emphatic, "NO!"

When Aunt Tami took care of Wyatt one morning so I could have some quiet time with baby Tate, he knew knew he would be coming home to take a nap. When the time came to leave (her apartment) he started to make a Big Noisy Fuss. She gave him our “party line” - some variation along the theme of “if you leave graciously you’re much more likely to get this privilege again sooner rather than later.” With great effort, he pulled himself together and as they were getting into her car, announced, “You will be HAPPY to have me again another time!”

Fictionary #12

Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Belated Birthday Fun

Keeping up family tradition, I have had "family" birthday parties and "friend" birthday parties for my boys, from about school age until they turn 10. We've had pirate parties, tie-dye parties, "hebby equib-ment" parties, train parties, ice-skating parties, and some I've probably forgotten. I went, rather loosely, along the lines of letting them invite however many kids as they are old... and they have to count their brothers... kind of. But by 10 it starts getting a bit crazy, so I've told them at that point they can pick one or two friends and go do something special. I wasn't up to much, right around Tate's birthday, but my boys know they're as important as the Presidents... they have an actual birthday, and then, their birthday "observed", like a national holiday :0)

Tate opted for swimming at the local pool. GREAT! Fun, easy, not weather-dependent, and not too expensive... right down my alley! I love the fact that by this age they are pretty self-sufficient. Kerry had to stay pretty close to Gunnar, and I did keep counting heads, but really the boys were all fine. Here are five of the SEVEN...













The pics are all pretty blurry, but it's not like the boys would hold still, for heaven's sake! It gives a more realistic idea of the experience...


Tate, as always, could not have been more full of the joy of the moment :0)















Tate, again...








And Wyatt. Often when we go to the pool, the slide is not open, so this was a treat.








However... It may have been Tate's birthday, but Gunnar had a very special moment. You have to be 48" tall to be allowed on the slide. When I measured Gunnar at home this morning, I was getting 47 1/2". And sure enough, the first lifeguard on duty turned him back. But he was not deterred. When the life-guards rotated, a few minutes later, he tried again... standing very tall. Then I could see, but not hear, a conversation with the new life-guard, and he was allowed up the stairs to the top! (Apparently they made an exception because he is quite small for seven.) Oh the JOY!!! With or without his 'water wings', he went down that slide until they closed the pool! He could barely touch the bottom, where the slide dumps into the pool, but he just took a big breath and waited for the current to swirl him over to the edge... oh so brave.

Going "i viking"

Right before I had my tonsils out we spent a couple of weeks on the Vikings. The boys loved this, for obvious reasons (!) and because they know that part of my family heritage is Swedish... in other words, "WE are Vikings, aren't we Mom?"

We're using Story of the World for our history studies, and there are always more activities to choose from than we'll ever have time to do, but these little Viking ships caught my eye. The boys were intrigued, but I decided this was a much better "Daddy project". (Kerry LOVES models.) So I prepared all the materials, with the instructions, and asked him to do them with the boys during the weekend I was recuperating at my parents.

Well, I'm not complaining - truly! - I'm just saying that they just put them together Thursday and Friday evening, THIS week. Cool, though, aren't they?

Seems like every time we take a picture of the boys, we have to also take a silly picture. The fun thing about this one is that above Gunnar's head you can see a photo of OUR house taken, we think, in 1902. My grandma was not born yet, but she could name most of the people in the photo.

Another thing I love...

Although my boys are a bundle of energy, and many days they wear me out, I can look back and be thankful that there are stages we are THROUGH. I found a letter I wrote to a friend just before Tate was born, late in 1998. I was hugely pregnant with Tate, Wyatt was almost 2 1/2, we had been trying to get rid of skunks that were living in the crawl space under our house, I was having a bad case of spacey "pregnancy brain", and it had just been quite a week!

It’s only Thursday and the last few days have been just insane... I’m wondering what will happen next! In general, Wyatt has not been himself. I know it’s partly because I don’t have the energy to run off HIS energy, and Kerry has been gone almost constantly (trying to get the bank project at a stopping place before the baby comes). He sees Wyatt in the morning while he’s getting ready for work, but often isn’t home until after 10pm. But this week has just been crazy on TOP of the normal insanity.

I think it started Sunday morning when I looked out the window and saw a donkey walking down the street, headed towards a busy intersection, while we were trying to get ready for church. I know all you farmers probably wouldn’t be surprised by something like that, but it’s a little out of the ordinary in a neighborhood like ours! I - being the only one dressed - chased it into the backyard and caught it... but then what do you do with a donkey? Our neighbor Debbie keeps a horse and I figured she would have more of a clue than me, so I woke her up and fortunately she took it off my hands. (I think she found out who the owner was through her vet, or the woman that shoes her horse or something like that.)

By then we REALLY had to rush to make it to church and Wyatt was completely wound up. He usually enjoys being in the nursery and plays well with the kids... USUALLY. I guess he was not being very good about sharing, even hitting and trying to bite! (MY lovely little angel!)

Then we noticed the our fairly-new-to-us van was making a strange clicking noise. It was OUT of oil (but no warning light). That’s rather unsettling. It doesn’t seem to have done any damage, but what about the warning light? The oil level wasn’t even SHOWING on the dipstick! Wyatt and I went home with my folks because Kerry was going to go into work for the afternoon and then come pick us up. He didn’t get to their place until about 9pm (a bit late for the kid!) and by the time we got him home and to bed it was after 10 (plus we saw the northern lights! - you should hear Wyatt try to say “aurora borealis”).

And that was just Sunday...

Monday was semi-normal for Wyatt and I, but poor Kerry. He is working SO hard to try and get the bank plans ready to go in for permit. The bosses keep promising him drafting help and then “stealing” the guys back, but have finally committed two “drafting slaves” to Kerry for this week. That’s great, BUT he has to stay ahead of them - prepare work for them to do. That meant he could NOT come to my Doctor appointment (as promised) and help corral Wyatt while I was being examined - fortunately a couple of other morning appointments didn’t show so the nurse sat in the little video room with him and watched the Pooh video I had brought! Kerry also, instead of taking Monday night “off” and going to our couples’ Bible Study, had to work until about 10:30. Anyway, Wyatt and I had a decent day, but then came Tuesday...

The good (no, make that FANTASTIC!!!) news is that we caught a second skunk - this one larger than the first. This supports my suspicion that there was a PAIR living under the house... perhaps the first, smaller one was the female and this one was the male (I wasn’t interested enough to confirm their genders up close and personal!) I don’t know much about the specific habits of skunks either, but I’m hoping that if they had a litter this spring they would’ve already kicked the babies out of the nest.

Anyway, ... I called Grandpa Lee to come over and shoot it with his little .22 pistol, which he was glad to do, but of course it sprayed. For some reason, even when they spray in the yard, it just oozes into the house and gets absorbed into everything, making it really unbearable here. I think it’s a fabric thing - the carpets, drapes, furniture etc. The one thing that seems to help the most is sprinkling a whole container of “carpet fresh” or something like that around and leaving it (not the usual 5 to 10 minutes, but all day). Of course, what that accomplishes is soaking up SOME of the smell, but leaving our house with the aroma of “skunk-scented-potpourri”. Just lovely.

Of course, as far as getting Wyatt wound up, this little episode left “the donkey affair” in the dust. When I ran Grandpa back home after shooting the skunk, my aunt, who was visiting, was awake and I offered to take them both out to breakfast - there was no way I was going to be able to eat in our house. They agreed to come by in about an hour. In the meantime at home we had to turn off the furnace (on our first truly cold and frosty morning!) because that seems to suck in and circulate the smell more thoroughly, so the house was getting cold!

I was trying to think where we could go for the day and what to bring to occupy myself and Wyatt, who by then was bouncing off the walls. I threw a bunch of stuff in the van and went to Denny’s with Grandpa and Myrna then decided to run some errands. Then I realized that all the windows were closed, due to the cold nights, but the smell dissipates a lot faster outside and getting some fresh air through would help inside.

Went back to the house for the first time. Ran some more errands. Decided to take Wyatt to the park to play and run off some energy. Of course all the play equipment was still wet with dew and his first trip down the slide got his pants wet, so I took off my sweatshirt to try to dry the slides. After being there an hour I packed him up and headed for Tami’s (my sister's) apartment - she lives nearby and I knew she wouldn’t mind if we hung out there while our house aired out. As I loaded Wyatt in the van he announced that he was poopy. No problem, I assured him, I’ll change you at Tami’s apartment. Got there, couldn’t find her key - thought it was in my bag. Also realized I had left my sweatshirt at the park.

Back to the park to pick up the sweatshirt, and back to our house for the second time to pick up the key (which WAS in my bag, after all). Of course, it didn’t occur to me to go to the trouble to unload Wyatt from his carseat and change his diaper at home. Back to Tami’s, pulled his pants down and WHAT A BLOW-OUT. There was poop everywhere. And of course, at this age I don’t carry spare outfits as a rule! Had to put him in the bath-tub and hose him down. I was so tired by this point that I decided to just give him lunch in the tub... (he loves the tub and he was about an hour late for lunch... why not?!) He took a nap on Tami’s bed and I thought I would finally have an hour or so to just breath, (and fresh air too!), but Tami came home on a late lunch break all wound up about some work-related stuff she wanted to “unload” about... glad to oblige, but was my head spinning!

Then we got invited to dinner with Grandpa Lee, two of my aunts, Tami, Mom and Dad (which was a blessing, as Kerry had to work late again, but could come meet us and I didn’t have to cook!) But we had to go back by the stinky stinky house a third time to get a clean pair of pants for Wyatt to wear! I feel like I have not been able to finish one coherent thought all day long!

THEN, the icing on the cake... I was violently ill in the night. I can only guess food poisoning - not flu...no fever, no achiness, etc. Fortunately it seemed to pass quickly. Well, isn’t family life fun? I hope I never smell another skunk as long as I live!

See?! Isn't life simpler now?

One thing I love about Thanksgiving

Okay, there are LOTS of things I love about Thanksgiving, and most of them are much more meaningful than this, but...

One thing I love about Thanksgiving is CHEAP TURKEYS! All the grocery stores put them on sale, and I fill up my freezer. What... do some of you only eat turkey on holidays? We eat it all year! Like chicken... but cheaper.

So now I have five, count 'em, FIVE turkeys wedged in there, along with a large cooler's worth of elk meat (thanks Dad!) and one of those oh-so-delicious Costco hams... the ones that come wrapped in red foil. I think we're set for awhile!

In which it is Winds-day... a Blustery Day

Because it just seemed like that kind of day.
photo by Gunnar :0)

Fictionary #11

Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Nice Try

Background:
The boys think it is a wonderful treat to sleep in the Big Bed with Mom. This works to our advantage, as we dangle this privilege from time to time. Gunnar tries especially hard to work his way into the Big Bed... just look at the face. Could YOU resist?

What Happened:
So, last night, Kerry was out late with his brother, and I put the boys to bed and told them to BE QUIET. They all share a room, so this can be an issue. Tate, of course, without his HA, usually goes immediately to sleep, but Wyatt and Gunnar will sometimes chatter.

I called from my office for them to quit talking and go to sleep. Pretty soon, little feet pitter pattered across the hall. "Mom, Wyatt is keepin' me awake, talkin'. " It was late, and I wanted QUIET! Knowing that Wyatt resents it when Gunnar gets to sleep in the Big Bed (and that Wyatt is usually the one who keeps talking and talking and talking...) I escorted Gunnar back to the bedroom and announced: "Wyatt, if you keep talking, I'm going to let Gunnar sleep in my bed!"

Not five minutes later, (I could still hear a bit of chattering), Gunnar marched triumphantly into my office with Wyatt on his heels, and declared, "Wyatt won't quit talkin', so now I get to sleep in YOUR bed!"

Wyatt gave me a knowing look and explained, "But Mom, he asked me, 'What d'ya wanna talk about?' "

Nice try, Gunnar! Back to bed!

Never a dull moment...

Here they are...

Ta Daaaa!

Here is an overview of the entire scene.

Looking a little closer, we see the Baby Jesus in the "manger", Mary and Joseph adoring Him, and a shepherd who has come to worship.


To the right of the stable, be sure to notice the Practical Shepherd - there is a banana in the food box behind him, and he is cooking chicken over the campfire. Mary will really appreciate HIM!

We see the three Wise Men approaching Jesus with their gifts. Unfortunately the chests are closed, in the picture. One is filled with Lego "jewels" and the other with tiny gold coins. Gunnar has explained to me that the last wiseman, carrying something blue (you might have to check the other pics), has the myrrh.

I know it's early. We're still looking forward to Thanksgiving :0) More about Christmas later, but I just had to get the pics up!

Lego Lovers...

My friend Stretch Mark Mama just passed on this link in the comment section of the previous post... but I'm not sure it all came through.

This is really cool!

Okay, honestly, I'm not sure I want to show the boys just yet, because I don't want them to think their Lego Nativity is "less cool", but check this out:

The Brick Testament

Is it too early?

I have a confession to make:

It is not yet Thanksgiving, and I have a Christmas decoration up at my house. Made by my three boys - pictures to come, when I can get Kerry to upload them…

In keeping with their previously referenced obsession, they have created a wonderful Lego Nativity scene!

They’ve built a stable, with baby Jesus. Some sort of cauldron is standing in for the manger. The part of Joseph is being played by Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Mary is represented by Marian Ravenwood (from Indiana Jones). “Get it Mommy? MARIAN… MARY?”

There is a shepherd, come to worship, who I think is another, older, Ben Kenobi figure.

The Wise Men and camels are being played by three Knights in Shining Armor (from the Castle collection), carrying treasure chests full of gold, jewels, and another special piece that Gunnar informed me is the myrrh. They have come on their three warhorses.

We have no sheep, but several snakes and fire ants have come to keep watch. And another very practical shepherd has built a fire outside the stable where he has apparently cooked some chicken drumsticks. He appears to have brought a bucket of bananas to share.

My boys rock!

Testosterzone #6

There are some things about boys that are very predictable… dirt, danger and demolition just for starters. Of course, there’s the endless amusement with bodily noises and functions. And let’s not forget the constantly competitive approach to many of life’s otherwise mundane events. (Does it really matter who was the first one INTO the minivan? Or OUT of the minivan? Or who got his teeth brushed first?) But what I really love is the UN-predictable ways in which their minds sometimes run.

Saturday evening we all went out to our church’s Harvest Festival. Nothing like church pot-lucks :0) The boys had a GREAT time… didn’t want to leave. As we started driving home, Tate started squirming, and then practically thrashing around! I couldn’t figure out what he was upset about, but he was pretty hot and bothered, and couldn’t seem to get comfortable in his seat.

Wyatt said, “Tate! I know what’s wrong! You have a SWEAT WEDGIE!”

And he wasn’t even trying to be funny.

The Beer Cave?

On the corner just south of our church is a typical gas station / mini-mart. This particular one is a source of enduring fascination to the boys because of the sign, which reads, “Come check out our BEER CAVE!” What is it about this place? Maybe it’s the irony of driving past it every time we go to church, or that may be lost on the boys. And honestly, guys, there is no cave. It is a walk-in cooler, for heaven’s sake!

But we stop there. You know why?

$1.99 gas, baby! WOO-HOO!

Bookworm Award... continued

Around the dinner table, this evening, I mentioned the Bookworm Award.

The boys were intrigued.

They bring you page 56, sentence 5, from the books they are reading in Silent Reading time. Well, Gunnar and I read "Hop on Pop", but - again - I'm not sure there ARE 56 pages, so he made another selection.

GUNNAR
"An' you know what else? I think that dragon is followin' me around!"
"Fone Bone! We've been over this a hundred times!"
"But I'm tellin' ya, I saw one! He had a goatee, 'n' a cigarette, 'n' big ol' hairy ears like this!"
Out From Boneville, by Jeff Smith

TATE
"For dinner on my birthday shall I tell you what I chose:
Hot noodles made from poodles on a slice of garden hose -
And a rather smelly jelly
Made of armadillo's toes.
(The jelly is delicious, but you have to hold your nose.)
James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl

WYATT
"It was going to pass no more than a hundred yards from us, closer to us than any tripod had been on this trip. There was no satisfaction this time, but a great relief when it had gone past. Until I saw it swing around and turn toward us, and heard the ululation that I had twice heard before and had cause to dread."
The City of Gold and Lead, by John Christopher

So there :0)

An award... an activity :0)

I'm in uncharted territory today. My friend, "Ambulance Mommy", a fellow HoH mom, has tagged me with The Bookworm Award. She may have been laughing a bit, as I was whining about not being able to read when I was on the pain meds :0)

But here's the deal:

Get hold of the nearest book. Not the most impressive book, or the one that will make you really look smart, but the nearest book. Turn to page 56 and type in the 5th sentence, and a couple more after that. (I had to go to another room... the nearest book - a kid's book - didn't HAVE 56 pages...)

Oh, this is too funny. In my Vicodin-fog I had TRIED to read our next book-club book, and then gave up. My eyes were sliding over the pages like tires on bald ice... no traction. But I marked the page where I gave up. Would you believe it WAS page 56?! True.

We're reading "Hannah Coulter", by Wendell Berry, and here is page 56, sentence 5:

Did we spoil her? I can honestly say that I at least didn't spoil her, I was so afraid that she would be a bother to her grandparents and not deserve their love. I sort of knew that she didn't have to deserve their love, but I was strict with her. Mrs. Feltner, for one, thought I was too strict, and eventually I saw that she was right.

Okay, now I need to choose five friends to carry on...

1. Mel-beth, at Caffeinated Moments, my friend, a relatively new blogger, and the mother of two boys who also have special health issues (diabetes), as well as an obsession with all things Lego and Star Wars, and - so - play really well with my little critters. :0)

2. Deborah, at A Different Drum, a fellow homeschooler who I've never met, but seems to resonate on many of life's issues.

3. Tina Marie, at Waxing Mundane, who is embarking on an adventure that will seriously cut into her reading time (!) and I am excited to see unfold. We've shared a relationship with Gatorade...

4. Lisa, at Stretch Mark Mama, who has a much bigger bloggy "voice" than I do, and loves to "hog books from the library".

and...

5. Ginny, at The Hansens, who may not get to read a lot, with an 11 month-old bundle of cuteness and energy, but shares a love of good books and a great many other things!

Oh my goodness, I'm so un-techie... now the test is if I've got the links right...

Have fun :0)

Julie

Happy Veterans' Day

In an ironic twist, while public schools are on holiday today, we started back up with homeschooling. (We've been off since the 30th!) Started slow, with some Bible, grammar, math, history, and silent reading. I breathed a sigh of relief to be finished by noon, and the boys are off playing with the neighbor kids. :0)

Remember our veterans...

Easy on the eyes...

The view inside...



The view outside...

Double Digits!

Tate is TEN!!!

The day I 'crashed' was the day we celebrated Tate and my mom's November birthdays. I had originally planned to host the dinner at our house, but that plan changed when my surgery was scheduled.

God bless "Grandma", she put on her own birthday dinner and made it oh-so-special for my Tater-bug.



Here he is, cuddling his Webkinz gecko. Even a 10-year old likes cuddly toys, once in awhile. Especially when they allow him to have an account to play the webkinz games... what he REALLY wanted :0)







He's amazed that I actually remembered the exact G-I Joe soldier toys he had pointed out on a shopping expedition. (Well, duh, I was taking NOTES, for goodness sake!)








Uncle Dave picked a winner of a Star Wars card :0)










And - oh boundless joy - the Star Wars Spider Droid Lego Kit he has been asking for, these long months of waiting.

The party was a success!

Night Sounds

I've been having the kids do some journal writing for homeschool. I don't correct their "GPS" (grammar, punctuation, spelling) - I just want them to WRITE. I'm always looking for topics, or "prompts" in the educational lingo, that will interest them. When I found the question, "What sounds do you hear as you fall asleep at night?", my mind automatically went to comforting sounds... rain falling on the roof, frogs or crickets, the wind blowing, etc.

But, of course, that's an adult thinking...

Three boys, who share a bedroom, think differently. As I suggested the topic, they immediately made two categories - what they WANT to hear, and what they DON'T want to hear.

And for Tate, it's a whole different thing. I asked him to write about what he would LIKE to hear, as he went to bed and waited to fall asleep.

I'd forgotten the Tinnitus.

Here's what he wrote:

Thes are some sawnds I here befor I Go to sleep.

eeeeee aeee
meeerrrvrvr
arrrbe reeeeee

I wode rather here my mind and Nothing Els !!!

Fictionary #10

Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

I'm including this one here, because of the random and bizarre thoughts that have passed through my head, along with the Vicodin!

Progress Report

To my real life and my blog-world friends...

I am really grateful for the prayers and encouragement that has come my way :0) Thanks for all the notes, the ice cream, the dinners, and especially the prayers. Today it is 3:20 pm and I have not had a nap! And I'm down to 1/2 a Vicodin every 3 or 4 hours. That means I have a bit of pain (manageable) but am getting away from the loopiness. Tomorrow I think I'll just try Tylenol, and save the V. for bedtime :0)

This has been a very weird (and unpleasant) experience, and I am hopeful that the rewards are yet to come... in the form of not having strep or tonsillitis on an almost on-going basis. Oddly, it has not really been a case of feeling a little better each day, but more like two-steps forward, one back, two forward, one back...

I really "crashed" on Friday. Fortunately the boys were playing at my friend's (thanks Mel!) I thought I was drinking enough, but apparently relying on thirst (and, really, I was peeing!) just isn't enough to go by. I got dehydrated. Seriously. I was almost delirious. Just breathing made me nauseous. Kerry was going to go to a meeting (I think?) and I begged him not to leave me alone, because something was really WRONG. Not pain, just WRONG. He got the Doc's office on the phone and they (correctly) thought dehydration was the cause. Fortunately I could keep down small sips of water. Kerry sat next to me, not letting me fall asleep, offering me alternate sips of water and gatorade until... ta daaaa!

Mommy to the rescue!

Talk about being a big crying baby. Kerry was doing all the right things, but I WANTED MY MOM! Yes, I am - ahem - 42 years old, but I wanted my mom!

I have to say it is amazing how quickly the body bounces back with proper fluids. The doc's office recommended the water AND gatorade, because my electrolytes were probably all screwed up, and I avoided having to be "IV'ed" back to health.

Interestingly (or not, if you're more than saturated with this...) my lymph nodes had felt swollen and tender all week, but once I got hydrated they quit bothering me.

So... I am still feeling like a weakling. I get tired easily, and need lots of fluids and TLC, which I get in abundance, at home. I was happy to go to church yesterday, though I took a 2+ hour nap, afterwards.

We'll be starting to ease back into homeschooling tomorrow... SO thankful my mom and dad did some history and math with the boys, so we are not "behind" (on my schedule).

Whew!

Vicodin Moments

A whole week has gone by with little of coherence to show for it on my part. I have a disjointed series of memories of things happening and people coming and going. Often with food :0)


Our church has provided several dinners for us this week. And my sister (a strep throat veteran) sent this:













My little Gunnar-bug, a tender and compassionate soul, leaves a note on my little Dry-Erase board every time he walks by:













Tuesday was kind of a "low" day. I was feeling sick. Kerry had a major deadline and had to work most of the day (he works from home, so he was still 'in charge'). It poured all day, so the kids got a LOT of "screen time" (computer and movie). At one point, Wyatt and Tate were playing Lego Star Wars and getting very frustrated. I overheard Wyatt, near tears,

"Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate!

That was all yooooooooooooooour faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaault!

You made me lose all my cooooooooooooooiiiiiiiiiiiiiins!"

(Pause, breathe)

"Oooohhhhhhhh, I wish I could say a Bad Word right now!"

A Brilliant Deduction

(I wrote this on Thursday, but forgot to post it. Oops. A perfect reflection of my fuzzy thinking of late...)

Okay, it’s been a week, and I really hoped I’d be feeling better than this by now.

It must be all the medication. Yeah. That’s the problem. If I could just get off the meds, all would be well.

That darn Vicodin makes me dizzy and sometimes nauseous… and all I do is lay around and sleep. Can’t even read much.

So (brilliant foggy-minded reasoning): if I could just quit taking the Vicodin, and take Tylenol instead (which does NOT usually make me dizzy or nauseous) all will be well!

Oh. Then there’s PAIN. Yeah. I forgot about the PAIN.

I guess that Vicodin isn’t so bad after all.

Monday...

The boys have been here with me today. Grandma has been doing History with them - yea Grandma :0)

They're bringing me home tonight to sleep in my own bed, and Grandma is coming to "help" in the morning. I'm still really 'rummy' in the mornings, but feel better as the day goes by. Still sleeping a lot. Hope ALL the boys (Kerry included) realize I'm not quite resuming my normal activities yet.

Our church has offered us dinners this week, and I am glad to accept :0) I had no idea I could sleep so much. Ugh.

The pain is not too bad, it's the side-effects that get me... dizzy, sometimes nauseaus, and just TIRED.

The boys are being wonderful :0)

Again, I am really feeling the prayers - many many thanks, though I haven't responded personally. Oddly, reading and writing makes me kind of dizzy... sort of like motion sickness. Yuck... I can't even read for more than a few minutes!

Thankful that this is temporary,

Julie

Just a quick update...

Had my tonsils out yesterday morning at 9am. Surgery took about an hour - a bit more involved than they anticipated, apparently, though nothing went "wrong". The doc told my mom I will be VERY glad I had this done... later.

I've been told to expect to feel worse and worse for the first four or five days, and then to begin to improve. I'm praying that I'll feel better and better!

I am spending the first three nights with my parents, who are dutifully making sure I take my plethora of meds on schedule, and filling me up with liquids... water, juices, and home-made chicken soup :0)

Kerry has the boys at home. I've written them a detailed schedule (indoor soccer, birthday party to attend, set the clocks back tonight, lunch with Aunty Tam-Tam...), and I'm sure they'll all do fine :0) I miss them all, but this is much more restful! The plan is for him to bring the boys up here Monday morning, and I will go home, while my mom does some homeschool history with them. She'll have them again on Wednesday for a Math day. Yea, Mom/Grandma! Kerry works at home (for any who don't know) and will just have to catch as catch can, regarding work.

I surely appreciate all the prayers... keep them coming :0) !

Julie