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.