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