Life Goes On...

I know its been many days and even weeks since I've written, but let me just say, its been a very very rough month. Sadly, blogging has not even been on my mind. However, now I'm back w/ an update.


So last you heard, they had just found my kidney stone. Well, I had surgery on the 10th, and let me just say it was horrendous. They told me I'd be up and moving 2, maybe 3 days after. Oh no, so not the case. It turns out the stone was the size of a golf ball and had done lots of damage. It took a lot to get it broken up and then they put in a stent to connect my kidney to my bladder and allow my tract to heal. This stent has just been the devil. The first few days were beyond miserable. I couldn't even get myself to stand up straight, let alone sit, lye down, or walk comfortably. I kept the vicodin close and handy. Even now, 2 weeks post surgery, I have to take a vicodin to get through the night. My stent is coming out today, yeah I know, on Christmas Eve. Hopefully things will get much easier now. It has been a very rough recovery, but Mike has been a real trooper. Poor guy, we went right from the flu to the surgery and he hasn't had a break yet. Tons of people from my church brought us food and helped man the babies, as well as family and friends. This definitely made my recovery easier. Life goes on, even when you're in pain and struggling to get through the day, the kids still need to be fed, played with, bathed, etc. Time doesn't stop for a sick mom or really tired dad.


Well Van had a Christmas party at school and I, with help from my good friend Megan, made the trek to the party so Van could enjoy it. I did catch a couple of good pics so here they are. Sorry there's not more, I'm trying to get by with the least amount of work right now.

**not sure why the pics are so small, I tried uploading them a couple of times, but its still the same. sorry.

Well not only did we get hit with the flu, have a surgery with the worst recovery ever, yep even worst than childbirth, but we got some very sad news this week. We got a call at 2am, Monday morning, you know phone calls in the middle of the night are never good. My mom was making the call to tell us that my grandma had passed away. Life goes on, right...while I'm struggling to even get my feet under me after my surgery, my grandma was slowly drifting away. She had surgery last month and was in a convalescent home so she could recover and get the medical help she needed. My grandpa had been home alone for the last few weeks but went to visit her at least 3 times a day, every day. My grandma was 84 and her and my grandpa would have been celebrating their 65th anniversary on this New Years Eve. Its all very sad. This is the first person I've lost in my family that I was close to, my first "big one" as they say. I went with my mom to tell my grandpa the news...he's really hard of hearing so he can't answer the phone so nobody could call him. We went very early in the morning since he usually gets up at 5 to go visit her and boy did that make for a long day. He looked very sad and the first thing he said to me was, "I'm going to be so lonely". I can't even imagine...my grandparents had known each other almost their whole lives, even before dating and they've been married more than twice my lifetime. How do you recover from that kind of loss? They were a very special couple, my source of stability and hope as I grew up. My grandpa never failed to spoil my grandma w/ love notes or little presents and I ask myself now, who will he spoil? My faith and my love for God give me peace for my grandma, but my heart truly breaks for my grandpa. Everybody has those special people in their lives that they place on a pedestal, or they rely on for wisdom or comfort, and my grandma was one of these for me. She was a very warm person and always had a smile on her face. She was so grateful for the life she led and always made sure we knew she loved us or missed us every time we talked. Its never easy to lose someone you loved, but around the holidays seems so much sadder. Life goes on right, but it just won't be the same.

Well I'm putting a halt to my blubbering for now. So as you can see, this last month has just been rough and the coming days will not be any easier. It may be a while before I get back on, but I will try when things settle down.

B

Long Over Due....

Ok so I'm way past due when it comes to blogging. I feel like life has just been beating us down. I don't even remember everything that has happened since my last post, but we've just been soo busy. Where do I start...

Easy stuff...the kids. Van is doing great at school. He can recite the Pledge of Allegiance all by himself. It's quite impressive to hear your 2 year old say the whole thing, almost brings tears to my eyes. One of his favorite activities now is to trace things. He loves to draw but can't do it really well so he decided that having mommy or daddy draw or write what it is he really wants, then taking his marker/pen write over it is just perfect. And you know what, he's pretty darn good at it. I know all parents must feel like this, but at times I just have to remind myself that he is only 2 and he's still so smart. He loves going to school now and he has friends and all the parents think he's just the cutest thing...its because he plays the quiet shy card every now and again and it just pulls all the moms right in. Such a lady magnet...

Onto my troublemaker...Ava. Wow, do I feel like her life is flying by. Just last night she decided to jump out of her crib. Can you believe it, just barely 9 months old and getting out of her bed. Van was just so content to do whatever it was that we let him that he never really bucked the reins so to speak...but Ava, oooh she'll be a tester. Today was the first day we heard an actual word from her, bye. She has been waving now for a couple of weeks and when Mike was leaving today she was waving bye bye and even though he had left, she couldn't stop saying bye bye. I was very excited for her. Now she's been saying it all day long...its just like any other new discovery. Let's see what else...she can stand on her own, although she doesn't like to do it for me because she just assumes I should be holding her all the time. She walks all around the furniture and she will put on a great chase crawling now. Sometimes she's so fast I lose her...its funny. She eats everything, well everything but bananas actually. She is a very sturdy girl, except for her tiny feet...I wish the darn things would grow already. If I'm not in the room, she is a pretty good baby. She's usually happy, playful, very determined, and just beautiful to look at. She has 2 bottom teeth now too and probably another one on the way. She knows her name and tries very hard to do anything her brother does including climbing in the bathtub all by herself. She loves to play in the bathroom and will get in the toilet any opportunity she gets. There are so many facets to this little girl now, I just can't remember them all.

Mike and I are keeping our heads above water. My dad was visiting with us last week, which should have been fun but instead we all ended up with the flu. Not to mention, just a few weeks ago Van had a pretty bad cold w/ chest infection too. So the flu came, hitting Mike first, lots of aches, chills, fever, ick. Then it hit my dad, myself, and Van all on the same day...tons of vomiting, fever, aches, chill, double ick. This was the first time in Van's life that he was actually vomiting, in a pot not to mention, and it was so pitiful. It doesn't matter how bad you feel, but as a parent it just breaks your heart to see your little one not feeling well knowing there isn't much you can do. Luckily for Van, his lasted about 24 hours. For me, the flu wasn't so gracious, 4 days later I was still struggling to gain my strength back. Not only that, but 2 days later I was dosed w/ a horrible migraine and poor Mike has been managing the kids the best he could, but I think he's just tired. And that's not even the worst of it. I've been dealing w/ this medical "mystery" now for 5 months and it has finally been diagnosed. I have a "huge" kidney stone lodged in my uteral track and have to have surgery next week...again, leaving Mike to man the house for a little while. Hopefully my recovery will be easy and I will be up very soon after my surgery, maybe day after and will be ready to go. I've got lots of family and friends around willing to help so hopefully that will take some of the load off of Mike.

Its really late and I'm very tired, probably off to bed. Sorry no pics this time, hopefully I'll get some up and posted soon...maybe even this weekend. Thanks for being faithful.

B