Week 42 – this week’s
biggest event was Christian’s surgery. All of the worry and waiting and stress
FINALLY came to an end (well, kind of), and we were all breathing a little
easier by the end of the week. It was quite a journey getting there though…
Monday was a little
bit of a chaotic day. Our daycare was closed for the day – for teacher
training. Eliza was off to my in-laws, like normal, and I was able to talk our
friend Sara into bringing the big girls to school with their little BFF, Bella.
So, I actually got a little bit of a break…I was able to send the girls over in
their pajamas – so I only had to get MYSELF ready today. WHAT?! I never thought
I’d see the day. After dropping them off, clothes and backpacks in tote, off to
work I went. The work day seriously flew by…busy, busy, busy…it’s always nice
when the work day goes quickly. It was a coooooold, and super windy day. SO
windy, that I received a text from Sara in the afternoon, giving us a heads up
that the neighbors tree had cracked, and a large branch was laying across the
driveway. I mean – of course that would happen! She didn’t see any damage, but
of course I was in a panic to get home as quickly as possible after work to
check it out. I picked the big girls up, we made a quick trip to Walmart, and
then finally settled in at home. Thankfully, the branch missed the garage…thankfully,
we weren’t home because 1) it landed right where the van would’ve been parked,
and 2) none of the girls were outside playing or anything. Whew! We were able
to get into the house, and I got the girls settled in. Christian arrived home
shortly after us with a borrowed chainsaw, from work, and got to work. Our
neighbors are the sweetest family every, and they felt so horrible about the whole
thing. They are pretty new to owning a home, so they were so worried about it
and had no idea what to do. I do think they will eventually have to take the
entire tree down now, as I would assume it’s going to be pretty weak now, and
probably start dying, but they’ll have to deal with that. Never a dull moment!
While Christian finished cleaning up the mess, I made some dinner; we ate,
read, did homework and relaxed for a bit before bed. Eliza had a hard time
tonight and would not stay asleep for anything. I think she’s teething again –
those last 4 teeth have been a battle! I ended up bringing her in the room to
sleep with me, which seemed to work pretty well. Poor thing.
Close Call!
On Tuesday, we were
all back to our regular places…work, daycare, school. And, we had a much better
night of sleep, with Eliza in our bed. Hopefully she’s feeling better tonight. The
big girls were pretty exhausted this morning…even though they actually went to
bed earlier than usual last night. I’m not sure what’s going on with that, but
it makes the painful morning process even more painful than normal. In
addition, traffic has just been ridiculous lately. For NO reason…no
construction, no bad weather, no accidents really. Just really dumb, slow
drivers. I’m seriously already dreading the winter drive if things are this bad
in normal conditions. NOT READY! Work was buys. Today was my last day for the
week, so it was chaotic getting everything ready for my time off. Again, makes
the day fly by, so it’s worth the chaos. Christian left work early to go to his
pre-op appointment. He had an appointment at the hospital to have something
inserted into his “mass”, which will help the surgeons locate the mass, and get
out as much as possible, during the surgery. He was pretty sore, so he took it
fairly easy the rest of the night. I picked the girls up from daycare, and met
up with Christian at home…we all got ready, and we were off to a chilly night
of soccer, their final practice of the season. Both of the teams had a “parents
vs. kids” scrimmage at practice tonight. I had Eliza with me, so I couldn’t
really participate, but Christian played with Olivia’s team – which she thought
was SOOOOO cool. Amelia’s coach handed out their trophy’s tonight, because a
few kids can’t make their final game on Saturday, and she was so proud. She’s
already excited for next season! We finally settled in at home for dinner and a
quiet night.
Wednesday was a
pretty stressful day – well, Day 1 of 2 stressful days. I dropped the girls off
at daycare – they’re last day of the week. They don’t have school Tomorrow or
Friday, so we pulled them out of daycare to save a little money. And, it was
surgery day for Christian – scratch that, it was supposed to be surgery day.
Initially, his surgery was bright and early – like, he had to be there by
5:30AM. Earlier this week, they called and rescheduled it for later, he was
supposed to be there at 11:00AM instead. Worked out a little better – it’s
outpatient, so we still had time to get the girls from daycare before close and
everything. Then, the chaos started…the hospital called, and apparently their
computer system throughout the hospital went down, so they could not proceed
with any surgeries until everything was back up and running. We spent pretty
much the rest of the day on hold, waiting to see if they’d still be able to
take him. While waiting…he ran to get a haircut, I got some laundry going, and
we just waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, late in the afternoon, we just
had to go ahead and cancel it. He gave them quite a mouthful – it’s really hard
for him to get time off of work, so this was adding an extra day he’d have to
be off…I was off, my in-laws were off, and we had care for the kids all lined
up. Needless to say, a lot of “sacrifice” and planning and preparing went into
this, so it was beyond frustrating to deal with this setback. His complaining
must have paid off, because they were able to get him on the schedule for thing
Thursday morning – again, BRIGHT and early at 5:30AM. That’s great, but I sure
still wish we could get today’s lost time back! Oy! Christian and I ate some lunch
and hung out for a while. He eventually went to spend the night at his parents’
house…since he has to be there so early, his parents are driving him so that I
don’t have to get the girls up so early. I picked the girls up at closing time,
grabbed some dinner and we settled in at
home for a girls night. They took baths, and we had a much more successful
bedtime tonight – whew! I watched a few shows before bed, quite stressed about
tomorrow, before finally turning my brain off and falling asleep. Oh man, I just
can’t wait for this to be over!
Look at the Awesome canvas I bought from Living Social! I love it!
Thursday - FINALLY,
surgery day! Actual surgery day. Christian’s parents brought him to the
hospital at the crack of dawn, and settled in for the long day. Meanwhile, I
got myself ready, got the girls up and ready, let the dog out, took the trash
out, packed up all of our bags, and hit the road. Man, already exhausted! First
up, I dropped Eliza off at daycare. Next up, the big girls and I stopped at the
gas station for gas and some “road trip” breakfast . Finally, we arrived at the
hospital, just after the surgery began, and settled into the waiting room with
my in-laws. The girls watched their tablets and conned grandma into bringing
them to the gift shop for some goodies. The surgery lasted about 70 minutes, at
which time the surgeon came in to discuss the surgery with us. He said that
Christian did really well, and there weren’t any complications with the
surgery, THANKFULLY! He did mention that the mass was larger than expected, but
he believed they got as much of it out as possible. It will be sent off to
pathology for some additional testing, but he didn’t expect to hear anything
concerning back. We were back to the waiting room, while he was taken to
recovery…FINALLY, we could all relax a little, and it felt like a huge boulder
had been lifted from our shoulders. We were finally able to see him and talk to
him around 10:00AM. He was just coming out of his anesthesia, still a little
goofy, but he was moving around pretty well and seemed to be doing great. He
drank some water, started sitting up, started moving more and more…we talked to
the nurse, got all of his aftercare instructions, and he was discharged around
10:45. In and out – isn’t that crazy?! His parents brought him back to their
place with them, while I brought the big girls over to my mom’s house for the rest
of the day/night. I figured the less chaos in the house after his surgery, the
better, and she’s been asking to have the girls over for a sleepover, so it
worked out perfectly. I stopped at my in-laws to pick Christian up and get him
home, but they had decided we were going out for lunch instead…I mean, if he’s
up to it, I’m sure not going to turn down a free meal! So, we stopped into
Applebee’s for lunch and some chatting picked up his pain medication at the
pharmacy, and settled in at home. We both took a nice long nap – a MUCH needed
nice, long nap. I was so beyond exhausted, I just couldn’t take it. I
eventually had to peel myself off of the couch to go pick Eliza up from daycare.
I grabbed some takeout for Christian and I, made Eliza some food…we all ate,
got baby to bed, and then settled in for a movie night. Christian was kind of
wired, and couldn’t fall asleep, so I toughed it out and we made it through
THREE movies! We watched “Horrible Bosses 2” – hilarious!, “No Good Deed” –
pretty good, a little slow but I liked the twist, and “About Last Night” – I love
Kevin Hart, but…meh, it was OK. By the end, Christian was doing well, but was
wide awake and could not fall asleep. I finally had to call it a night, and
left him to watch a little TV on his own. I think he finally fell asleep around
1:30, and got a pretty good night’s sleep, so it looks like things are going
well.
The fountain at the hospital was pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month. Of course the girls thought it was pretty awesome!
On Friday, we slept
in. No, seriously, Eliza slept until 9:00AM!!!! Oh man, it pays to be the “only
child” once in a while. Christian rested most of the day, played with Eliza for
a bit, and I got some chores done. I cleaned the kitchen, sorted the laundry
and did some picking up around the house. We ate, hung out, Eliza took a nice
long nap, and we had another movie day while Christian recovered. We watched “Tammy”
and “Let’s Be Cops” – which were both fairly corny, but pretty funny. Some nice,
fun comedies were just what we needed for distraction! Christian was feeling
pretty sore, but doing well. We hadn’t heard any results on the pathology of
the mass they removed, but I’m guessing it’s a “no news is good news”
situation. I picked the big girls up from my mom’s around 1:00, and when we
returned, Christian could not sit around any longer. He took the girls outside to
play for a while, and he hung up the outdoor Halloween Lights. I mean – if I
had just had surgery yesterday, you could not get me off of the couch, or peel
the remote control out of my fingers. He’s not milking this for what he should
be, that’s for sure. It did give me some time to work on picking up the house
some more though, and get most of our Halloween decorations up – so I’ll take
it. Finally getting house back in order…slowly, but surely!
Olivia's 1st Grade Photo
Amelia's Kindergarten Photo
Olivia, Kindergarten vs. 1st Grade
Saturday was a pretty
busy morning. We slept a little later than usual, so we had to rush to shower,
get ready, eat a quick breakfast, and head off to soccer. It was the girls’
last soccer game of the year. Yes!!! Christian can’t drive yet, until he’s off
of his pain medication, so he stayed home with Amelia, to walk her to her game
(which starts just after Olivia’s ends), so Eliza and I were off with Olivia to
her game. It was a tad chilly out – but overall, we didn’t really have any
unbearable, CRAZY cold soccer mornings this season, so that is a huge success.
Unfortunately, the other team decided not to show up. Not one, single, person.
Our original schedule did not have anything going on this week, but just before
the season started, they added this week. I could not believe that not one single
person on the other team noticed that! Our coaches were so upset, and we were
all pretty annoyed by it. The league only had 3 teams to begin with…so, every
week, one team was left out and didn’t have a game. So, they were already
shorted at least 3-4 games, so for the other team to just not show up for the
last game, was pretty upsetting. I know one of our coaches sent a pretty
scathing message to the director and the other team’s coach – I just wish we’d
still be around to hear what comes of it. Seriously though, how disrespectful!
Since we were all there, they split up and had a little scrimmage instead,
before getting their trophies. The team was heading to one of the parents’
houses for an end of the season party – but, I didn’t want to miss Amelia’s
final game, so we weren’t able to attend (I’m also fairly socially awkward in
that kind of setting, so it wasn’t the end of the world). Instead, we loaded
into the van, and were off to meet up at Amelia’s game. She played SOOOOOOOO
awesome today, AND, she scored her teams only goal of the game. She broke away
with the ball a couple of times, and just missed the goal, but then she finally
got it in. The smile on her face was seriously the best – she was so proud of
herself, and came running over to me for some high fives. Ugh – so dang proud
of my girl, and just how far she has come. I can’t wait to see how they keep
growing and advancing over the years. We let the girls play at the part for a
little while after the game, grabbed some pizza for lunch, and settled in at
home. Eliza took a nice long nap, Christian rested for a while, and the big
girls started fighting and driving each other crazy. WHEN WILL IT END?!?!?!?!
Man, those sister battles are BRUTAL! Christian’s friend, Lorenzo, took him out
for dinner and to get him out of the house for a while…the girls were driving
me nuts, but they brought Dairy Queen home with them to make up for it! Lorenzo
helped him hang the inside Halloween lights and spider webs before he left –
so, we were finally, officially, Halloween ready! Woot!! The girls were off to
bed, Lorenzo left, and we settled in for some TV…but, pretty much just passed out.
Olivia's Last Day of Soccer
Amelia's Last Day of Soccer
Sunday brought the
last day of my “vacation”. The surgery was stressful, the girls have been
driving me INSANE with their fighting, but I’m still SO not ready to head back
to work. We sent the bickering duo downstairs to clean up the basement. There
is still a long, LONG way to go, but they made a dent, and it kept them busy
for a while. I spent the day doing laundry, dishes and some more cleaning up…the
girls’ room, our room, the entry…picked up the living room and dining room. I
did some more work on the kitchen, which was seriously a complete disaster
earlier this week, and it’s getting there. I had to make the girls’ bunk beds
tonight – and that’s seriously the hardest chore ever! I’m not build for making
bunk beds. I was so hot and sweaty and exhausted, but I can’t wait to get this
house ALL cleaned up and back in order. It’s been pretty chilly out, but it
warmed up enough today to crack open the windows and let in some fresh air.
AHHHHHH! We had a big, late breakfast, and the girls watched some movies while
we waited for the temperature to rise a little more (they have been DYING to
play outside for a while). Eliza went down for a long nap, Christian had lunch
with Lorenzo, and I finally let the big girls play outside. They seriously
stayed out there the rest of the day…they ran and played and picked the last of
the garden. They actually got a long, really well, for a change, which was just
simply amazing. Maybe they just needed some fresh air too! With the house “all
to myself” for much of the day, I was able to get a ton of stuff done. I feel
like the house is finally in a livable state again. And, bonus, my in-laws
dropped off some meatballs and sauce, some spaghetti and some garlic break so that
I wouldn’t have to make dinner tonight. SCORE!!! The girls didn’t have swim
class tonight, so we ate, relaxed, I folded clothes and we just hung out for a
while. The girls had their bath, and were off to bed a little early. Christian
fell asleep, so I settled in to watch “The Walking Dead” on my own, and OMY –
it was a craaaaaaazy episode this week. Seriously, that show is so amazing. With
that, my 5 days off came to an end, and I was SO not ready to kick off the work
week. Not one bit!
I finished cleaning their room and making their beds, and it cracks me up how much their beds resemble their personalities. Olivia is so attached to everything she gets...she loads her bed up with pillows and stuffed animals and little trinkets. Amelia is simple and plain, just the basics, nothing to bother her. So funny.
Showing me their garden goodies
Until Next Week!
XOXO
