More flowers and news

Hello all! Thought I would send out a quick update and let you know how I am doing. I am recovering pretty well. I am all but back to normal. I did have a setback last night and had to take a percocet because my head was hurting quite a bit. Yesterday was my first day without a nap so I think that had something to do with the 'extra' pain. I went to bed at 9 and watched 2 episodes of "The Office", they made me laugh and I did feel better. My ear still bleeds just a little bit off and on, no biggee there. The worst part of all is that I have a metallic taste in my mouth and that SUCKS!!! (sorry Momma, but it's true!) It is there ALL the time, when I eat it is not so bad (that is good) but when I drink anything it's magnified!!! It's terrible! I can hardly stand soda and I LOVE my soda. What will I do without my Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke Zero?! Come to think of it...maybe my lack of caffeine is why my head hurt yesterday......what do you think? Yeah, probably the "drilled through the skull" thing. :)

On Tuesday I got some more flowers from my sweetie. He ordered them on Friday but they called and said they couldn't deliver because of Memorial Day. So Tuesday they came and they are gorgeous! And check out the card:

"No Fault Of The Sender". I think that's funny!

Today Josie has her appointment with the people from Sooner Start. It will be interesting to see what they have to say. I will give you a full report. Baseball is back in the swing. Luke has practice at 5:30 and Kaden a game at 6:15. T-ball runs until the middle of June or so depending on how many postseason tournaments the teams decide to play.

I am currently reading "Founding Mothers" by Cokie Roberts, all about the wives and women that played a pivotal role in the founding of our country. WOW! Pretty inspiring stuff in there. Those women were pretty remarkable. I cannot imagine living in those times and under those circumstances. Anyone interested in history should read this book.

Thanks again for the prayers, calls, and cards. I appreciate them all! Love to you!

Successful surgery

Friday was my surgery and all went well. It was a tad more interesting then I would have wanted but it was a success overall and that is what is important.

When the doc looked inside my ear he realized that I did in fact have the cholesteatoma (skin cyst) he thought I did NOT have. That changed the surgery completely and he celled Michael in the waiting room. At first he said they wouldn't be able to do the surgery at all but since I was "under" did Michael want him to do some exploring so they would know what kind of surgery they would have to do next time. Smart boy that he is allowed the doc to look around in there. They drilled through my skull behind my ear to get a better view. Not too long after that they called Michael again saying that they got the cholesteatoma out and my hearing bones all looked good. The doctor did notice some clear fluid around my hearing bones and they couldn't find a leak but went ahead and put some fat from my earlobe in there to fix a microscopic leak if there was one. He finished by fixing the hole in my eardrum with skin from behind my ear and it was over. It was a success. When I woke up from surgery the first thing I wanted to do was go to the bathroom. They had me walk there and it was quite a ways for anyone coming out of anesthesia. They left me in there alone and it's a miracle I didn't fall. On the way back I told them I was going to get sick and the nurse kept saying "you're almost there, you'll make it", I said "No, I'm sorry" and proceeded to throw up on the floor. Then someone held a trashcan underneath me so I was puking and saying "thank you". Turns out trash can man was my doc. They walked me the last 5 feet to the bed and he had me follow his finger with my eyes. He said my eyes jumped and so decided I would have to stay the night in the hospital. He thought maybe I was sick because of the clear fluid (which I am assuming was cerebral-spinal fluid--right my medically enhanced family members???) We waited for a room for about an hour and then they put me upstairs. I was a little relieved thinking I would get a good nights sleep but I forgot how much they come in while you are in the hospital, I was checked on over 20 times. I didn't get that much sleep at all. The doc had me on bed rest and so I was at a 40 degree angle all night long with the massage stockings to make sure I didn't get blood clots and I had to use a bed pan. UGH! That was pretty terrible. Thankfully it was just that one night. The kiddos and Michael came and picked me up outside of the hospital Saturday morning. The car ride made me VERY sick to my stomach and I spent much of the weekend in bed. But I think I deserved it! I am not in that much pain but once it starts hurting I take a pain pill. Michael thinks I was sleeping too much and wanted me to switch from the pain meds to Tylenol. I have done that but I don't know if the Tylenol is going to cut it just yet. I am trying though... And so now I just have to live with hardly any hearing out of my left ear because it is full of gel while it heals. I go back in the doc in a month for a check up. That's my news. Here are some pics from the hospital. I took these myself with my cell phone:

Here are my stitches behind my ear, I can't really see them. Michael called me Frankenstein but the pic doesn't look that bad I don't think. I still can't really see them!Oh yeah, and all that hair right there has glue in it. I don't know how in the world I am going to get that out. It feels gross and I don't like it, but I guess I will keep trying with each shower... And here are my beautiful flowers from Belva and James :) Thanks guys so much! They are GORGEOUS!Thanks for all the prayers, well-wishes, and phone calls. It meant a lot to me! Thanks to Kelly and Michael (her Michael) and my old-faithful Michelle for watching the kiddos on Friday for us. It was MUCH appreciated. We love you all!

Doctors, Tigers, and Boys, OH MY!!!

Some quick tidbits here. Tomorrow I go in for my ear surgery, my TYMPANOPLASTY. I am nervous but not freaking out. We go into the hospital in the morning and the surgery lasts about 2 hours or so. I should be done and home early afternoon they say. That sounds good to me. Mike will be with me at the hospital and my friend Kelly will be here with my kiddos. (what I have gotten her into?!) :) Not so crazy about going to the hospital tomorrow but...
There is news to be excited about. Tonight Michael and I, Kelly and her Michael are going to the Missouri/ou baseball game! The Big 12 tournament is in town and I get to see my boys play! I'm SO excited. Mizzou is great this year. Should be a wonderful game: beating those stinky sooners just miles from their home base. Awesome. MIZZOU-RAH!!!!! Let's go Tigers!
And last but not least, here is the cell phone pic of Luke and Kaden at our Redhawk game. This is Daddy's foul ball. I told you this photo was cute to miss!

Jedi's-in-training

A few days ago Michael discovered our long lost lightsabers up in the hall closet. They were confiscated some time last year when our boys were doing more hurting then playing. We have a red and a green one. That would be a 'good' and 'bad' for those not so it tune with Star Wars. We have 2 lightsabers and 3 boys. Notice a problem?! So after dropping Kaden off at school, Gabriel, Josie, and I headed out in search for another. I ended up buying 2 more, the blue and purple ones. (purple after all is my favorite color and we couldn't have a missing color, not for true Star Wars fans...) Now we have 4 and they are the most important things in our house right now, even trumping the end of school.

When Michael ANAKIN came home yesterday, he was jumped by our 3 Jedi's-in-training:

(yes, Michael doesn't have Darth's color--Kaden wanted it, fear not other Star Wars freaks, we do know what character belongs to what color :) And this morning I found this: I don't know what the fridge did to deserve it but it must have been quite bad:

School ended today. I don't know that Kaden quite understands that yet. I think he will be awfully sad when he realizes he won't get to see his teachers again, he really did like them! We are looking forward to a fun, fun summer! The wedding bells are rapidly approaching!!!! :)

Kindergarten ends!

Luke had an award ceremony at his school this morning. The 2 kindergarten classes came in and sang 3 songs and then were given 'diplomas'. Very fun. Luke had a great time singing with everyone. I don't know why my camera is giving me fits but it is. It must be on a strange setting because my pics are blurry. It drives me nuts and I am sure that you don't like seeing them like that either. I guess it's better then nothing though... Here they are!

Here is part of one of the songs. Luke is in the middle with the navy blue Superman logo t-shirt. You can hear him singing too! Aren't they cute?!

Daddy's Birthday!!!

Yesterday my hubby turned 31! Can you believe it?! We had a great b-day weekend! On Saturday our good friends Michelle and Jonathan watched our kiddos so that Michael and I could go out for dinner AND a movie. Yep, that's right. We got to do both! It was awesome! We

went to the Haunted House Restaurant and had a great time and a wonderful meal! Yum. Then we went to see Prince Caspian, but that didn't work out, too many people, too late of a show, etc. So we opted for Iron Man, which I loved by-the-way. (Mike had already seen Iron Man which is why it wasn't our first choice on Sat. But he certainly didn't mind seeing it again!) Then on Sunday we stayed home and just chilled out. Everyone needed that! I even took a nap! I can't even tell you the last time I was able to do that, It was awesome and much needed! Here are some fun pics from the day.

Cake time. Michael made his own cake while I was napping...that is terrible but he didn't mind, he likes to bake. We didn't have any b-day candles (I am such a slacker) so I reused the kiddos #1 candle. Mike's thirty-1, so that works, right?!
Happy Birthday my sweetheart! May this year be filled with nothing but blessings and joy :) I love you!

Sooner Start started

Today the state early intervention program came to our house for an initial screening on my Josie. Basically he asked me a huge range of questions from my pregnancy to her favorite toys. After about an hour and half we were done. It was Josie's nap time but she was the sweetest, most adorable girl ever! She was dancing and "da-da-da"-ing the whole time. In the areas of socialization, personality, and fine motor skills Josie was at the very top of the scale. It was in communication and gross motor skills that she was lacking. Her communication was in the mid-range area not the intervention area. It was low because she does not have another word besides "da-da" and does not yet point at things. Her gross motor was VERY low, but we kinda all expected that huh? 5 or 6 questions were about walking or taking steps and since she is not doing that---the answers were obviously "no". So all this to say he is going to send out the Evaluation Team to actually work with Josie. The earliest they can come is the end of May (2 weeks) and then the beginning of June we have to go the office for a hearing screen (not that he or I think anything is wrong with her hearing but that is just a formal part of the evaluation). By the time this all comes around I won't be surprised if Josie hasn't taken a step already. She has changed leaps and bounds since her first birthday, she is pulling up and crawling on her hands and knees and all. So there is the update. Good things today. And yes Grandmas, he did think Josie was gorgeous. He loved her smile. I took some fun pics tonight. SO adorable:

"What's in here?":

"Look Momma, I'm in!":

Here she was kicking her feet so hard she was lifting herself off the floor. Josie was cracking up. Could she be any more adorable? I think not.

They're here!

And I LOVE THEM! They were delivered on Mother's Day---quite appropriate, don't ya think? I sat on the floor and watched both the washer AND the dryer. I was so excited. It's amazing how much water I am saving already and how 'dry' the clothes are after the washer's spin cycle. Awesome. Thanks to my honey for my Mom's day gift!

Quote

Yesterday I finished reading "Surprised by Joy", an autobiography by C.S. Lewis. While most of it was INCREDIBLY WAY OVER MY HEAD, this quote stuck out and I wanted to share it with you. I especially love the first part, how true it is.

"The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation."

Take me out

to the ball game with my hubby and two oldest kids...

Saturday night Mike and I took Kaden and Luke to the Oklahoma Redhawks game (AAA team of the Texas Rangers). They lost to the Fresno Grizzlies but we still had SO much fun. The boys were excellent and had a wonderful time. Everyone around us thought they were adorable as they were yelling out thier baseball knowledge. We sat 6 rows behind the plate! Awesome. And for $12 a seat--I kid you not! I of course took lots of fun pics. Here's a picture for Grandmom, us with Johnny Bench (her fav):

The field:

Luke and Kaden with Rowdy the Redhawk, they got the biggest kick out of this!

Look at the sign on the fair pole (yes I know it's the foul pole, but if the ball hits it, it's fair so in my book that makes it a fair pole) Pretty clever:

View from our seats, not too shabby:

The boys wanted ice cream, of course I said yes. They had 2 helmet bowls there. Yankees, which thrilled Kaden to no end because his t-ball team is the Yankees (THAT IS WHY HE HAS THAT HAT ON, make no mistake, we don't cheer for the Bronx in this house---sorry about that Aunt Jackie!) And then of course the other was the CARDS :) as it should be:

Luke is such a cheeseball, I couldn't get him to smile for real, so this is what you got!

Oh yes and the biggest news. In the first inning, Mike got a foul ball for the kiddos. He about took out a 13 year old girl to get it though. That was a tad bit embarrassing, but what can you do?! The boys were insanely excited about it! We took pics with our cell phone but not the actual camera, when I figure out how to send the photo to my e-mail I will put it on the blog.

***SMILE***

More sweet Josie pics...I cannot get over this girl, she is my absolute JOY!!!

Okay, I need some back up here. Yesterday I had to go to a quick eye appointment to make sure I had no problems with my contacts, which I don't by-the-way. Mike and I met at Burger King and 'swapped' the kids so I could go alone :) Michael immediately starting giving me problems because I dressed Josie like a boy. He said you don't put a little girl in a blue shirt and khaki shorts. I quickly corrected him, it's a blue blouse-shirt with khaki capris. She totally looks like a girl. What do you guys think?! AND YES I need comments here!!!!!

Last night we put in Josie's new car seat, Michael and I are so particular about our car seats that I wasn't about to try it on my own. It took around 20 minutes but it's in nice and tight. When I put her in this morning I asked "How do you like your new seat?!" This was my answer:Are you kidding me? That's too cute. I took some more pics outside waiting for Luke's bus. I had Luke come over to help make her smile. At first Kaden was convinced but Josie was still wondering about it:

And then she cracked to Luke's peek-a-boos:

Think on this:

"...a gracious hand leads us in ways that we know not, and blesses us not only without, but even against, our plans and inclinations."

--William Wilberforce

We girls got presents :)

Monday was a big day for Josie and I! Now that Josie is 13 months old it is time to move her from her infant carrier car seat don't ya think?! We were going to move her straight into Kaden's old car seat but it's only forward-facing and you have to be 20 pounds for that. Josie is still NOT there yet so needs to stay rear-facing. The rear-facing seat we have has basically NO padding what-so-ever but luckily none of the boys were in it too long! (well, maybe Luke..) So I was at Sears and noticed a clearance of last year model and how perfect it was for a little GIRL:

How adorable is that?! How adorable is she?! The seat is denim with pink flowers, are you kidding me? Only in my dreams did I think I would have a pink seat like this!!! :) And Grandmom, those are Josie's new rainbow PJ's I told you about, they are too cute, and they are PURPLE. I LOVE buying purple! :)
And as for me...Mother's Day came early and it's awesome. My loving husband bought me a front load, energy efficient washer and dryer! And here it is, TA DAAAAAA!!!!!

Please don't read this as sarcastic because it totally is NOT! I actually enjoy doing laundry, don't mind it all, but I hated using all that water and my dryer is not working so well right now, I sometimes have to dry 2 or even 3 times. That is not good when you have 6 people you are laundering for! When the new tax relief came my Mom planted the seed about a washer/dryer, I looked around and found some 07 models that were clearanced (does that sound familiar?!), they are Bosch and they are super nice. The company was just trying to get rid of them because we are almost halfway through 2008! Ultimate Electronics bought like 108 pairs of them at a great price and are in turn selling them for a GREAT price. Normally the machines are both over $1000 and we got them together for $1300 :) AWESOME! They are that silvery color which actually makes them more expensive. 2 of the coolest things: the washing machine weighs your clothes and figures out how much water to use, you never set a water level AND it has an internal water heater inside to help the water get crazy hot for a sanitation cycle meant to rid stuff of germs and sickness/ etc. AWESOME! And the dryer has the crazy sensors that stop the cycle when the clothes are dry. I am way excited, can you tell?! They could be in as early as Thursday. Yippee! By-the-way, Ultimate has sold 60-some pairs of these this week!! Afterwards we went to the Outback and had a great dinner. The kids were excellent and we celebrated my Mother's Day gift. I'm such a blessed Mom!

Quickies

I promised that I would be a much better blogger and though I have tried, things have slipped through the cracks of time so I figured I would do a little quick catch up.

Last Wednesday had 2 big milestones! First of all I got contacts! Yep, I am still SUPER excited. I can pretty much put them in and out now with no problem. Every once in a while everything goes blurry but as soon as I blink a couple of times my vision goes back to normal. (this usually happens when I am reading!)

Right after my eye doc appointment I headed to church with Luke and Kaden for our 2nd to last week of AWANA! I cannot believe it is over already. We had the Sparks Awards that night. (K, 1st, and 2nd, I help with the 2nd graders) Luke received his award and was thrilled. For those of you familiar with AWANA he is almost through his first book, just 2 green jewels left! He should have those done the first week of AWANA in the fall :) AWANA is a program centered around memorizing bible verses and Luke did such a great job, I am so proud of him. I took some pictures, they didn't come out well, but here they are anyways:

This Wednesday is the Sparks party and Kaden will be having his Cubbies party and awards, I won't get to be there for his pics :( Maybe I can figure out a way...

Last Thursday I went to the ENT again. Remember from months ago (years ago actually) I have a hole in my eardrum that requires surgery to fix it. Well because of my pregnancy with Josie and my nursing we put off the surgery and now it is time...ugh. So we are awaiting my insurance approval and then we schedule. Hopefully the end of this month, right after the boys are done with school (May 21st! That is crazy, I will have a Kindergartner and 1st grader!!! WOW!) Surgery should be no big deal, out-patient with a couple of days to recover. I can do that, right?!

Last Thursday night Oklahoma City had terrible weather, a couple of tornadoes touched down, and our house was hit by 2 hailstorms. We had tennis ball size hail, I have never seen that before, CRAZINESS!!! Mike and I were a little freaked, we got everything ready to head to our storm shelter in our garage--WHAT A PEACE OF MIND THAT PROVIDES!!! The kids didn't blink an eye. Hail pinging off the windows and even Josie didn't get upset. Glad they aren't afraid of thunderstorms like their Momma! Mike took this pic of the hail outside, about golf ball size then:

One more fun photo! Sweet girl riding on her Daddy's shoulders, if you look carefully on the side of her head by her right ear, you can see HAIR wisps! It's very exciting!

Hallelujah!!!

Mark it down--May 3rd, one day shy of Josie's 13 month b-day---SHE STOOD!!!! She pulled up on the fireplace this afternoon! It was utterly exciting. I instantly teared up. Michael and Luke were clapping for her. Josie kept getting into the wipes box so mean ol' Daddy put it up on the fireplace---that didn't stop her, she headed over there, pulled up onto her knees and then all the way!!! Yeah!!! I ran and got the camera. Way to go sweet baby girl! (and yes she did it more then once and also she is now crawling about half the time on her knees and just half army crawl!! AWESOME!)Here is my sweetie playing with Kaden-man:

Josie was trying to help Daddy play his Rock Band drums:

Bath Buds

Josie had her first bath with (some of) her brothers the other day. It was pretty cute. Kaden and Gabriel were thrilled at having her in there with them:Josie was NOT thrilled to be the first one taken out: